“Folks see me now, they usually simply assume, ‘oh, she had it straightforward,'” she says, however Rose Ferreira has had it something however straightforward. The trajectory of her life has been so turbulent, in reality, that NASA, her earlier employer, printed a function article about her willpower on its web site. That story chronicles her journey from a poverty-stricken childhood within the Caribbean and years dwelling unhoused, to pursuing her schooling and rising to turn into a NASA intern, which finally led to working on the house company full-time.
In January, that article vanished from NASA’s web site. As an onslaught of govt orders and directives signed by President Donald Trump despatched federal companies right into a frenzy of program cancellations and mass layoffs, NASA’s appearing administrator Janet Petro started aligning the company with the White Home’s new legal guidelines of the land. That included eliminating any workplace or program related to variety, fairness, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives.
Observe: This text mentions accounts of abuse and sexual assault.
NASA promptly started firing workers affiliated with such efforts and carried out a freeze on all pending hires. The company additionally began systematically purging its web sites of any cases highlighting variety and inclusion. Inside three days of Trump’s inauguration, NASA’s web site for the Workplace of Range and Equal Alternative (ODEO), its related pages and any company web page with mentions of DEIA, girls in management, indigenous peoples, or environmental justice began being faraway from the web. NASA eliminated language on its Artemis program pages that referenced the company’s dedication “to land the primary lady, and first individual of coloration” on the moon as part of its Artemis 3 mission — language NASA adopted underneath Trump’s first administration, and a purpose the company had promoted again and again. The erasure additionally included a 2021 graphic novel a few Hispanic lady and her various astronaut crew’s launch to the lunar floor. On Feb. 6, Ferreira discovered NASA’s piece about her had been eliminated with the remaining.
“It is one thing that I anticipated was coming,” Rose Ferreira, 39, informed Area.com. Nonetheless, she stated, “it did really feel like a slap within the face … it looks like every little thing that I labored for has been taken down little by little.”
Taken down
Ferreira was within the hospital recovering from pneumonia when she discovered NASA’s function about her had been eliminated. (It’s again now, however we’ll get to that.)
A college trainer contacted her to ask in regards to the lacking web page, which many academics have used as a part of their classroom STEM (science, expertise, engineering and math) shows. “As quickly as I discovered, I simply cried. I wasn’t anticipating that, to be trustworthy,” Ferreira stated. “I used to be actually weak from being sick … it simply felt just like the punching simply stored coming.”
For the reason that starting of the second Trump administration, many in Ferreira’s circle at NASA have feared shedding their analysis funding, and even their jobs, attributable to adjustments directed by the White Home. “Persons are feeling slightly extra protecting now,” Ferreira stated, “like they’ve to observe what they are saying, and round who.” The removing of the NASA article and comparable pages despatched a transparent message to Ferreira and others:
“We’re not welcome,” she stated.
“My dream was by no means to work at NASA. I simply love house, and I wished to be in science, so I did something I may to do this. However as soon as I turned an intern at NASA, I noticed how a lot I find it irresistible. I’ve an emotional attachment to NASA.” Ferreira’s first NASA internship was in 2022, on the Goddard Spaceflight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, the place she started assembly individuals as obsessed with house and science as she was.
“When you have individuals like that — people who find themselves proficient, individuals who work so arduous to be part of it, who need to are available and work for the way forward for NASA — and also you’re mainly sending out the message, ‘that is how straightforward it’s for us to erase you. You are probably not welcome right here proper now.’ Then what are you doing precisely? You are simply conserving expertise out and also you’re dehumanizing individuals on the similar time.”
Ferreira described the brand new atmosphere at NASA as tense. Folks started to worry that contributions to their respective fields could also be disregarded on the belief they did not deserve their position if a DEIA program could have performed an element in them getting it.
“You do not simply journey and bump into these [kinds of opportunities],” she stated. “Folks do not perceive that DEI was created so individuals like me do not get pushed out, or simply stored out.”
“A few of us work a lot more durable for a similar issues,” Ferreira stated. “I can not even take a bathe with out being grateful for the water, as a result of I did not develop up with operating water.”
NASA’s function on Ferreira solely scratches the floor of the hardships she confronted earlier than reaching her place on the company. “I perceive not everybody needs to listen to about hardships,” Ferreira stated, although she wonders whether or not the aim of highlighting troublesome tales will get misplaced after they’re diluted for the sake of palatability. She stated she as soon as turned down a ebook deal as a result of the publishers additionally tried to shine her story by skipping a few of its most troublesome elements.
Ferreira works arduous on softening her accent within the U.S. as a result of as soon as somebody hears it, “individuals all the time deal with me like rubbish,” she stated. She emphasizes, nevertheless, that such vitriol comes from either side of her cultural divide. Within the U.S., she defined, individuals see a profitable lady with a profession in STEM, a number of NASA listings on her resume, and assume her path to success was straightforward. She says individuals from her nation see her in an analogous gentle, however by means of a special lens. They suppose she’s had it straightforward as effectively. “You are each mistaken,” she stated.
Rose
Ferreira is from the Dominican Republic, the place over 1 / 4 of the inhabitants lives under the poverty line. She describes the neighborhood the place she grew up as, “in all probability one of many poorest within the nation.”
For her, schooling was “studying sufficient to depend the beans,” she stated. “You might want to learn to cook dinner, it’s essential to learn to clear, and it’s essential to get a husband.”
“I refused to do any of that,” Ferreira stated.
As a toddler, Ferreira stated she was known as a “malcriada,” a Spanish time period that means bratty, or badly behaved. “I simply did not pay attention,” she stated.
“I assumed the universe was simply the moon and the solar. That is it,” Ferreira defined. “I did not know anything.” Her inquisitive nature would ultimately result in her realization that she wasn’t going to get the schooling she was in search of with out making a change. Within the atmosphere the place Ferreira was rising up, it was clear: “I wasn’t going to get these solutions.”
Ferreira was curious in regards to the world round her, and was annoyed when she started operating into the identical endpoint for any line of questioning. Her persistent probing in regards to the methods of the universe additionally led to her abuse. “The reply for every little thing was, ‘God created it,’ and that was by no means sufficient for me,” she stated. “I caught loads of beatings for that.”
The bodily abuse Ferreira endured as a toddler did not finish when her line of questions would cease, nevertheless. “I have been by means of, I feel, just about each form of abuse that you can imagine,” she defined. Ferreira was sexually assaulted from a younger age till she managed to legally immigrate to the U.S. across the age of 16.
She moved to New York Metropolis, however the abuse adopted her throughout borders. Then she turned unhoused. “I used to be married off actually younger, and I left my husband. That is a giant no-no in my tradition and the way in which I used to be raised,” she defined. “All people turned their again on me, and I ended up homeless.”
For the subsequent three years, Ferreira lived underneath a bridge on 96th Avenue.
Throughout this time, she stated she had no schooling and barely spoke any English. Ferreira spent her days hopping on and off trains to move the time, however was determined to alter her scenario. At some point, she observed an commercial on a newspaper she was utilizing to cowl herself. A house well being aide firm was hiring care suppliers with no prior expertise and supplied 30 days of coaching. A month later, Ferreira had a contemporary pair of scrubs in hand and started working shifts to save lots of up for an condominium. Ultimately, she was in a position to earn her GED and start programs at a college.
Ferreira began at Hunter School, the place her tutorial advisor discouraged her from pursuing a level in science as a result of she did not have a math background. They “did not need to set me up for failure,” she stated. Round 20 years outdated, however ever the “malcriada,” Ferreira was to not be deterred. “I did not hearken to anyone. I simply enrolled within the lessons, and the lessons kicked my ass slightly bit.” The punches would hold coming.
In 2016, whereas nonetheless working her in-home well being aide job, Ferreira was identified with cervical most cancers. Then, in 2017, she was hit by a automotive whereas strolling house from work, which landed her within the hospital. “My life up till 2017 was simply working and surviving so I may go to high school and get to do house stuff,” she stated.
Ferreira left Hunter and started taking distant programs at Arizona State College (ASU) whereas recovering, and would ultimately earn her Bachelor’s diploma in astronomy and planetary sciences. Her coursework at ASU led to her first fellowships at NASA, two subsequent internships on the house company, and, finally, her full-time employment. She has additionally since earned a Grasp’s diploma in house techniques engineering from Johns Hopkins College, in Maryland.
Whereas in restoration, confronted with decreased mobility and restricted assets, a good friend instructed Ferreira flip to social media for recommendation about her scenario. Her Twitter posts about her circumstances was lengthy threads of rationalization, as descriptions of her struggles started to develop into conversations on-line. She rapidly gained a following, and located a neighborhood.
“I opened an account as a joke. I began speaking about my life slightly bit. To me, these struggles had been regular. Getting chased by rapists on the road, sleeping underneath a bridge — that stuff was regular to me,” Ferreira stated. Her openness on-line led to talking engagements at numerous occasions, which rapidly led to her involvement in outreach and activism for STEM schooling in disenfranchised communities.
She centered on serving to faculties discover methods to make science extra attention-grabbing and accessible, and offering assets for kids coming from faculties with out science packages. Ferreira says she is motivated to do that work due to her non-traditional path to turning into a scientist: “I would like individuals to know, ‘oh, perhaps if she will do it, I can do it.'”
When Ferreira was an intern at Goddard, she labored on the workforce that helped launch the first deep subject picture from the James Webb Area Telescope, and had the prospect to document a Spanish voice-over for one among NASA’s This Week at NASA movies. She was mentored by Thomas Zurbuchen, former affiliate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and had the chance to shadow him at NASA headquarters. It was 2022, the 12 months NASA would publish their function about Ferreira. That very same 12 months, she was additionally honored as a Brooke Owens Fellow for her STEM outreach. Ferreira was employed full-time on the house company as an analyst to start with of 2024.
“That they had a giant give attention to opening alternatives for individuals, for girls, who usually would not get the prospect,” Ferreira stated of the fellowship. “For me, that meant opening doorways into aerospace.”
Ferreira turned so profitable in her STEM activism that she was honored on the White Home in 2024 as a Younger Hispanic Chief within the Area Trade. Just some months after receiving that honor, Trump was elected President.
Company
Ferreira stated some departments inside NASA started holding conferences inside weeks of Trump’s election to reassure workers and provides them peace of thoughts — but additionally to subtly stress the significance of highlighting their worth to the company.
“The temper began altering,” she recalled. “Even the language that was being utilized in a few of our inside emails.” NASA water-cooler discuss rapidly turned to hypothesis, rumors and tales of individuals shedding their jobs.
“By comparability,” Ferreira stated, “the web page factor sounds small — however to me, due to the background that I’ve and the place I got here from, and the issues that I needed to do to get to the place I’m, it felt like a extremely massive punch.” Nonetheless, she would not fairly blame NASA for the web site censorship.
“This isn’t actually about NASA. That is nearly what this represents,” she stated, stating that the individuals who scrubbed NASA’s webpages are seemingly simply doing their jobs. “That is not straightforward,” she added, “shedding your job or not having a way to maintain a roof over your head.”
There are additionally nonetheless individuals at NASA who Ferreira sees as household. A mentor and colleague who she stated looks like her “surrogate father” has labored at NASA for the higher a part of 4 a long time.
“After I was an intern for the primary time, I used to be staying at a extremely harmful place in D.C.,” she defined. “He heard that I used to be coping with stuff, and his spouse requested if it was okay for me to remain at their house,” Ferreira stated. “From then on, these individuals turned my precise household.”
Proper now, Ferreira is grateful for the understanding household can carry.
“We have now a really unsure 4 years arising, and everyone’s scared,” she stated. When Ferreira discovered NASA eliminated her article from its web site, whereas within the hospital throughout her bout with pneumonia, she turned once more to social media. She posted on Threads in regards to the deletion of her web page, and it went viral. The put up has acquired over 85,000 likes and has been shared greater than 11,000 instances.
Submit by @rose_d_luna
View on Threads
The information unfold rapidly. Ferreira’s colleagues at NASA started reaching out. Folks had been outraged, or apologetic, or they wished to know the way she was dealing with all of it. “It is simply been fixed,” she informed Area.com on the time.
Inside days, as a polarized web debated her scenario within the remark part of her Threads put up, Ferreira’s story on NASA’s web site was all of the sudden restored. Nobody from NASA contacted Ferreira in any official capability to tell her about what was occurring, both earlier than it was taken down or after it was put again on-line.
Pneumonia prevented her from returning to her job at NASA for one more few weeks — and when she did, it wasn’t straightforward. The load of the tense ambiance compounded her nervousness about her viral put up: “I really feel like at any second I am simply gonna get the boot.”
The boot
Ferreira was declared pneumonia-free on Feb. 21, a Friday, and given her physician’s approval to return to work. She returned the next Monday. On Wednesday — 20 days after she first posted about her NASA web page being taken down — she was fired.
She stated she instantly knew what was occurring when she walked into her weekly one-on-one along with her supervisor; the assembly had an sudden attendee. An HR consultant rose from a seat within the nook as Ferreira entered the workplace. She was informed she was being let go as a result of she wasn’t fulfilling her place’s tasks, “efficient instantly.”
“After I was about to open my mouth, she waved her hand at me, and was like, ‘No, we’re not doing that,'” Ferreira stated. “I am listening to ringing in my head.”
“They did not let me converse in my very own assembly.”
Ferreira, wrapped in thick armor solid from a lifetime of perseverance, is never dropped at tears in entrance of others. This was not going to be the exception.
She was escorted again to her desk, to the stunned seems to be of her coworkers, the place she was informed to gather her issues earlier than being led out of the constructing. “I personally felt like a prison,” she stated. Ferreira stored her composure till she arrived again house, the place she lastly dropped her armor and broke down in tears.
“These are people who I trusted.”
Transferring on
NASA stated the house company “doesn’t touch upon personnel issues” after we reached out for an announcement on Ferreira’s dismissal. Ferreira was inside her provisional worker interval at NASA — a gaggle focused by the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) spearheaded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce — however was not informed that was the rationale she was let go. And, in reality, the White Home knowledgeable NASA Feb. 19 that the company’s provisional workers could be exempt from the “impending layoff plan.”
Within the weeks since her firing, issues on the house company don’t appear to have markedly improved. Stories of solutions made to NASA workers to purge their workspaces of LGBTQI+ symbols have emerged alongside claims of outright bullying over coworkers’ Delight decorations.
Ferreira heard these rumors, too. “I do not suppose all services are like that,” she stated. “Each facility has its personal cultural id.”
In the meantime, NASA continues progress towards shrinking its personnel and assets throughout one of many company’s most energetic durations since its house shuttle program was assembling the Worldwide Area Station. A 2026 funds proposal launched by the Trump administration on Might 2 requires a 24% discount to NASA’s funds. Ferreira would not see how the house company will proceed to outlive with these sorts of cuts. “If you see it from the within, you notice how little NASA really will get, and the way a lot they do with it,” she stated.
Even NASA’s most up-to-date administrator, former Senator Invoice Nelson (D-Florida), is apprehensive in regards to the course the house company is headed. “The primary person who was fired at NASA two months in the past was the Chief Scientist and Chief Local weather Officer,” Nelson stated throughout an occasion in Washington, D.C. in April. “I feel we must be involved about that.”
Petro, NASA’s Appearing Administrator, has labored to steer the boat since Nelson’s departure, however admits instances at NASA have been “bizarre” currently. She stated final month that she is extra keen than anybody to see the brand new NASA administrator be confirmed.
A vote to substantiate Trump’s choose for that position — billionaire entrepreneur and personal astronaut Jared Isaacman — was just lately forwarded to the Senate by the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. If confirmed, Isaacman stands to inherit an area company dealing with the biggest minimize to its funding in historical past, in accordance with the nonprofit Planetary Society.
For Ferreira, she’s not seeking to return to house anytime quickly.
“A part of me hopes that I can return in a number of years, as a result of my plan was simply to retire at NASA,” she stated. Within the meantime, Ferreira is refocusing her consideration on her activism and outreach to underserved communities. “I acquired so centered, I ended doing outreach fully after I went into NASA, and the one outreach I used to be doing was inside the company.
“I felt like I wanted to return to this to present me hope in humanity once more.”
