Free Republic

Neela Rajendra said deadlines are an obstacle to ‘inclusion.’. NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory has parted ways with its top diversity officer, Neela Rajendra, after the Washington Free Beacon reported that the lab had changed her title in an effort to keep her. "Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory]," lab director Laurie Leshin said in an all-staff email on Thursday. "We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best." ... Leshin added that the newly formed Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success—intended to replace the...

NASA’s stranded astronauts have acknowledged that Joe Biden deliberately abandoned them in space for political purposes. Barry Wilmore and his crewmate Sunita Williams have been stuck on the International Space Station since July last year after their Boeing Starliner ran into technical issues. At a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Wilmore was asked about Elon Musk’s claim that Joe Biden declined his offer to bring them back on a SpaceX flight several months ago for “political reasons.” “I can only say that Mr Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual,” Wilmore said. Wilmore went on to say he and his...

WASHINGTON — The three NASA astronauts who returned to Earth on the Crew-8 mission declined to discuss the medical issue that prompted a trip to the hospital after their return and, for one of them, an overnight stay. NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, returned to Earth Oct. 25 on a Crew Dragon spacecraft, concluding the 235-day Crew-8 mission. But later that day NASA said that the four were taken to a Pensacola, Florida, hospital for additional medical evaluations “out of an abundance of caution.” One of the NASA astronauts was...

Boeing Starliner program manager Mark Nappi ... it's no surprise that the company's Starliner crewed flight test is taking longer than expected — so far, almost ten times longer than expected. NASA astronauts Butch Williams and Suni Wilmore are on Day 77 of their eight-day stay aboard the International Space Station. Nappi says he regrets not doing a better job of managing expectations. "I think we all knew that it was going to go longer than that.. We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about how much longer, but I think it’s my regret that we didn’t just say...