NASA's New Policy For Excluding Certain Foreign Nationals

[bananas]

Source: NASA Watch

Keith's 10:11 am note: The following is posted in a Closed Facebook page "Young Scientists for Planetary Exploration". The group has 1,549 members. I was made aware of this issue last night in great detail before I asked to join the group. When my membership was approved just now I was confronted with a warning that I would be banned for life if I posted anything from this group. I was not aware of this restriction when I asked to join - only after the fact. This is an important issue that needs to be surfaced. I will not identify the individual who posted this. I expect to be banned momentarily. Oh well.

Keith's 8:11 pm note: I have been kicked out of the group (one would assume) for raising this issue. You're welcome. What is really odd is that Andy Rivkin, one of the people who run this Facebook group, violates their own rules with regard to publicly discussing content from within the group.

"I've been participating in this year's JPL Planetary Science Summer School for the past 9 weeks, and was told only today that I have been declined further participation in the program, and will be withdrawn from next week's session at JPL. The reason I was given was that my place of birth was in Hong Kong, regardless of the fact that my citizenship is Canadian. NASA regards all persons born in Hong Kong as Chinese Nationals, including those like myself who were born prior to the 1997 handover, were never granted Chinese citizenship, and have immigrated to other countries like Canada. After contacting some people to try to understand why I was informed of this so late, it has come to my attention that this is a NASA-wide issue (not just JPL or PSSS) that was enacted just today by the NASA HQ Security Branch."

- Hong Kong Policy Act Report, State Department
- Designated Countries List, NASA HQ Security


Read more: http://nasawatch.com/archives/2015/08/nasas-new-polic.html

[haikugal]

1. Wow...???

[PosterChild]

2. I'm not sure what this is about....

..... but NASA has to be careful about foreign nationals participating in their programs. This is because almost all space related technology is protected under the ITAR regulations. A Canadian citizen, regardless of place of birth, would be considered a foreign national. If s/he were a permanent resident, this restriction might not hold.

Beyond that, education and outreach programs like "space camp" are run at taxpayers expenses for the benifit of citizens and our country , not foreign nationals, although a permanent resident would probably be included .

I don't understand what is up with the Facebook group, but it is probably not an official NASA forum . If this group is being used to discuss or disseminate information covered by ITAR regulatioms, it is definitely close to the edge of being illegal , if not over the edge.

https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulations_laws/itar.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Canadians are not banned from NASA. He was British before he was Canadian. Never Chinese. nt

[PosterChild]

4. No one is "banned" from NASA...

... Chinese , British , Canadian , etc. But foreign nationals, Canadian & British included, are treated differently because of ITAR restrictions, and because NASA is a national government agency . Something like a state university that has different tuition rates for out of state and foreign students .

I work on NASA programs. We have two floors in our office where all the foreign nationals are located, and the other floors are under security restrictions that prohibit foreign nationals. They are valuable members of the team and they certainly are not "banned" but national security restricts their full access .

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. He's not been segregated. He's been kicked out. nt

[PosterChild]

6. I read the "news" article, which ....

.,,.has very little information other than that he was " kicked out" due to the fact that he isn't an American citizen. If the United states government sponsors a program for citizens and not for foreigners, what's wrong with that?

Heck, there are radio call in contests that limit participation to citizens. What's the big deal ?