Trump administration cancels top NASA climate lab’s lease at Columbia University

The Trump administration canceled the lease for its top climate monitoring lab, located in New York City, as of May 31, according to an email seen by CNN.

In the email, the director of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland informed employees of the impending closure of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and transitioning to remote work.

The affected lab, also known as NASA GISS, is leased from Columbia University and located above the diner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that was featured in the TV Show “Seinfeld.” Scientists there conduct climate and space studies while collaborating with researchers at Columbia.

“The work continues, the data, the products, the science will continue because science is done by people not by buildings,” NASA GISS director Gavin Schmidt told CNN.

A NASA spokesperson said in a statement “employees would be placed on temporary remote work agreements while NASA seeks and evaluates options for a new space for the GISS team.”

The Trump administration is currently battling with Columbia, among other universities, over its policies on antisemitism and other matters, and is withholding billions in federal research funding. A federal judge on Thursday significantly curtailed the administration’s ability to block funds from schools for engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI – programs. Two other courts are considering similar challenges.

The NASA lab tracks global climate conditions, serving as one of the main centers worldwide for this information, in addition to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It also runs computer models that project Earth’s future climate conditions and seek to better understand global climate change. The supercomputers for those models are located in Maryland.

“We will provide the support necessary for employees to transition to remote work agreements in the short-term as the agency seeks a new, permanent space for the team,” Goddard director Mackenzie Lystrup said in the email, a copy of which was shared with CNN.

A NASA source, who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution, told CNN that it will be more difficult for the lab to carry out its missions remotely, and the move is “demoralizing” for the workforce. In addition, the same scientists are “waiting for the axe to fall on the mission of Earth science” at the agency, they told CNN.

An administration budget proposal, if enacted by Congress, would cut the agency’s science programs by nearly 50%.

“GISS has a significant place in the history of space science, for decades leading groundbreaking work in understanding planetary atmospheres and systems – especially that of our own Earth,” Lystrup wrote in the email. “And while the lease is ending, the Institute’s mission continues.”

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