Watchdog group launches legal probe into NASA emails over ‘Space Czar’ Harris as astronauts linger in orbit

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A conservative watchdog group launched a Freedom of Information Act probe against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seeking documents relating to the situation that has left two U.S. astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) for several more months.

The Oversight Project’s executive director told Fox News Digital on Monday he and his group have legally sought emails between NASA political appointees and the White House, including the office of Vice President Harris, who also holds the title of chair of the National Space Council.

The filing by Mike Howell, head of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, also demands outgoing emails to Harris’ presidential campaign. Just as Harris was tasked with assuaging the root causes of illegal immigration as the so-called border czar, her role as vice president makes her essentially the lead adviser on space policy in that regard.

"This looks like to me and other experts that Kamala Harris, the space czar, chose politics over our astronauts," Howell said, inferring that there may have been a political calculation against bringing astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams home as planned.

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In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is docked to the Harmony module of the International Space Station on July 3, 2024. (NASA via AP)

"It's very bizarre that the mainstream media seems not to care about this massive scandal. We're going to continue to investigate this and get Americans the answers they deserve."

The National Space Council (NSpC) had originally been organized in a slightly different manner under former President George H.W. Bush before it was disbanded and reorganized under former President Trump.

Trump himself unveiled the first new branch of the military in decades, the U.S. Space Force, at a 2018 NSpC meeting.

In its filing, the Oversight Project seeks to compel NASA to share correspondence from agency chief of staff Bale Dalton III, Associate Administrator James Free and five other senior officials. It also seeks communications between NASA and officials in the commercial crew program at Boeing, the company that manufactured the Starliner capsule that took Wilmore and Williams to the ISS this summer.

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Vice President Harris takes part in a National Space Council meeting. (DHS)

A source close to the matter pointed to the stipulated responsibilities of the NSpC chair, as outlined by Trump in his 2021 executive order establishing the council.

"The Chair shall serve as the President’s principal advisor on national space policy and strategy …" the first stipulation reads.

The chair of the NSpC, therefore, has substantive advisory authority over NASA’s decision-making, the source said.

In an August press briefing, a NASA official said there was a "little disagreement in terms of the level of risk" between the agency and Boeing after the capsule suffered propulsion issues and elemental leaks. Ultimately, the Starliner craft safely returned to Earth unmanned on Sept. 7.

A few weeks prior, Boeing officials said in a statement they remained confident in Starliner’s ability to return safely with crew aboard: "We continue to support NASA’s requests for additional testing, data, analysis and reviews to affirm the spacecraft’s safe undocking and landing capabilities. Our confidence is based on this abundance of valuable testing from Boeing and NASA."

"The data also supports root cause assessments for the helium and thruster issues and flight rationale for Starliner and its crew’s return to Earth," the statement reads.

On X, formerly Twitter, Howell listed the curriculum vitae of a handful of NASA hires made while Harris has led the NSpC, including a veteran of New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, another from the Jacksonville Symphony and an individual whose "scientific" major was "political science."

"Space is serious business. Kamala Harris obviously has no business running the National Space Council... They’re lost in space right now. Part of the reason they’re lost in space is that our NASA has been turned into another woke-DEI, dismal excuse for a government agency," he said.

Howell also shared a copy of a document showing "strategic objectives" of the "NASA DEIA Strategic Plan." 

"The fact is that Vice President Kamala Harris' record as Border Czar is as awful as her record as Space Czar," Howell said Monday.

Howell said it is important that the public see any such correspondence of a political nature between NASA, the vice president’s camp and/or Boeing because other nations like China are watching for such "sign[s] of weakness."

"It seems that Harris signaled a willingness to cede America's space superiority in the name of an effort to ‘save democracy,’" he said, suggesting the DEIA priority may jeopardize national security. "When is enough, enough?"

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Vice President Harris (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The astronauts, however, took their extended trip in stride.

"I love being in space. This is my happy place," Williams said.

Wilmore will miss his daughter’s final year of high school but notably requested his absentee ballot Friday so that he would be able to vote from orbit.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ governmental office and the Harris campaign but did not receive a response. 

In a response to Fox News Digital regarding the FOIA, a NASA spokesperson stated that Harris and NSpC staff "received frequent updates on the Starliner Crewed Flight Test."

"While the National Space Council works closely with civil, national security, commercial, and international partners to advance the nation’s space priorities, it does not make operational spaceflight safety recommendations or decisions," the spokesperson wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.