NASA scrubs promise to land first woman, first person of colour on the moon from web pages

U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign to eliminate diversity efforts and language from government organizations has officially reached the moon, with NASA erasing references to its promise to land the first woman and first person of colour on the lunar surface from several of its web pages, citing Trump. 

The space agency pledged five years ago that its Artemis program would achieve both goals, while also putting the first non-American astronaut on the moon. 

But references to this have been recently stripped from NASA's website. 

As recently as March 14, the main page for the Artemis program said: "NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before," according to a snapshot taken by the Wayback Machine, an internet archive. 

By March 16, that sentence was gone. 

The space agency also deleted a page, also preserved on the Wayback Machine, advertising a 2023 graphic novel called First Woman, inspired by the Artemis missions, which told a fictional story about the first woman on the moon.

"First Woman embodies the rich history of countless women who broke barriers and continue to lead NASA to the stars," said Bill Nelson, then NASA's administrator, upon the launch of its second issue. 

"Diversity is at the core of NASA's missions."

Elsewhere on NASA's website, the language is still there — a 2023 article about the Artemis III mission states it will "land the first woman and first person of color" on the lunar surface. 

When asked about these removals, the space agency confirmed that they were due to Trump, who issued executive orders against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in January. 

"In accordance with an Executive Order signed by President Trump, NASA is updating its language to better reflect the core mission of the Artemis campaign: returning astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA remains committed to aligning with White House guidance and ensuring mission success," a spokesperson said in a statement to CBC News. 

It added "the change in language does not indicate a change in crew assignments." 

The revisions to the website come amid a wave of companies and government organizations eliminating DEI programs and censoring language that appears to celebrate diversity. Trump has referred to such programs, which have historically aimed to rectify inequalities in hiring, as "discrimination."

Trump's anti-DEI campaign, along with his orders for federal organizations to eliminate references to transgender and gender diverse people from their databases, has led to the mass purging of numerous online databases and web pages, including the deletion of scientific datasets on topics ranging from youth health to HIV.