President Trump’s campaign to excise Diversity Equity and Inclusion from the federal government has had some controversial effects on NASA messaging. According to Ars Technica, language referring to the “first woman and the first person of color” to walk on the moon has been removed from the Artemis program website.

The idea that the first moonwalker since Apollo 17 would not necessarily be a white male began during the first Trump administration, when then NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine referred to the next moonwalkers as “the first woman and the next man” to accomplish this feat. The Biden administration quietly changed the phrase to “the first woman and the first person of color” to the mission statement.

The statement in advance that the next American moonwalkers would include others besides white men was rooted in the perceived necessity to impose diversity among NASA’s space explorers. America’s space agency is a political organization. The old adage is that rockets fly as much on funding as they do on rocket fuel. Funding is generated by political support.

The announcement that one of the next moonwalkers would be a woman paid dividends during an August 2019 conference that took place at NASA Ames. Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed Bridenstine when she said, “As far as having........

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