The Trump administration is illegally gutting NASA’s largest research library – Literary Hub

The Trump administration is illegally gutting NASA’s largest research library.

Meet the team fighting to save our scientific knowledge.

By Brittany Allen, February 13, 2026

Founded in 1959, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is home to NASA’s largest research library. For decades, scientists, engineers, students, and a curious public have leaned on the archive to understand the physics and mechanics of space travel and satellite technology.

But late last year, the Trump administration began a shadowy campaign to destroy the library and most of its irreplaceable contents.

This shuttering was part of a larger reorganization plan. In 2025, the Trump administration and its henchmen in DOGE proposed drastic cuts to NASA facilities, including the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 labs.

Goddard’s archives were then placed on the chopping block. But a groundswell of public response stayed the administration. Activists working to save the library briefly secured provisions for its continued operations, via the FY26 Appropriations Bill. But this week, the administrative hammer came down anyway.

In the words of Colette Delawalla, the CEO of Stand Up For Science—an activist organization dedicated to defending and advancing America’s scientific ecosystem—the imminent purge is illegal. And tantamount to a “modern day book burning.”

I spoke with Delawalla this morning about what the administration’s cloak and dagger action means—for both scientific research, and a sentient public.

“I cannot overstate how much knowledge is housed in this library about literally our entire universe,” she told me. “The most expansive understanding of human knowledge about space is being packed up.”

What many people don’t realize is the breathtaking extent of what constitutes ‘space knowledge.’ As planetary scientist Dave Williams told NPR back in January, the Goddard library houses “a database covering all the missions and everything that’s flown back all the way back to Sputnik.” Which institutional intel has proved crucial for designing modern missions.

And according to Delawalla, the Goddard is also the keeper of great stores of earth science data, which means research crucial to climate science is also in peril. Especially the files on yet-to-be-digitized floppy discs.

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