Photo: NASA

NASA has released its first-ever Equity Action Plan, establishing focus areas to allow the agency to track progress on improved diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

The plan has four focus areas — increasing integration and utilization of contractors and businesses from underserved communities and expanding equity in NASA’s procurement process; enhancing grants and cooperative agreements for underserved communities; leveraging NASA’s Earth Science and socioeconomic data to help mitigate environmental challenges in underserved communities; and advancing external civil rights compliance.

NASA has established an executive team, led by the deputy administrator, to guide the agency’s equity efforts. The agency will also solicit opportunities for public engagement and have regular public town hall meetings to share progress on its efforts. The agency plans to develop metrics and tracking systems and conduct early assessments of outcomes during fiscal year 2022. 

The space agency put together this plan to support the Biden-Harris administration’s initiatives to advance racial equity in the federal government. 

“One of our biggest challenges lies here at home. As NASA ushers in the third great era of human space exploration, we take on a renewed challenge of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the plan. “This plan seeks to further identify and remove the barriers that limit opportunity in historically underserved and underrepresented communities and anchor equity as a core component in every NASA mission to inspire a new, more inclusive generation.”