The offices closed by NASA are its Office of the Chief Scientist; its Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy; and the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility branch of its Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. The cutting of the last of these is a direct result of Trump’s 20 January executive order to slash diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government. But the reason for the closure of the other two offices is not as obvious.

Both offices advise NASA’s chief, or administrator, on scientific and technical matters. Petro is filling this position until Trump’s nominee, billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman — a friend of Musk — is confirmed by the US Senate.

The two offices are unique in that they offer ways of connecting strategy across NASA’s departments and divisions. With their closure, “you will lose strategic thinking”, said a NASA staff member who is familiar with the structure of the offices but did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.

fear or retaliation",