How NASA Covered Up for "The Family"
Pressed about Bill Nelson's activities, NASA redacted, obfuscated, and issued falsehoods
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Note: This article is a sidebar to my reporting on Nelson’s activities with the Fellowship Foundation last year. You can read that article here.
When I first found out that an anti-LGBTQ+ group connected to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson would hold an event at a NASA facility last year, I asked the space agency about his involvement.
In response, NASA did everything short of outright lie — and even that’s debatable.
Even when pressed, NASA refused to confirm that Nelson would have a role in the Florida Student Leadership Forum (FSLF) and strongly suggested he would not. He very much did.
When I confronted NASA in November about social-media posts describing Nelson’s involvement after the fact, a spokesperson said Nelson’s involvement was in a purely personal capacity. They emphasized that “The Administrator has long been a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights.”
But the spokesperson also perpetuated fictions that originated with the group involved, the Fellowship Foundation.
The Fellowship has a history of obfuscating who’s behind its events and what its mission is. NASA’s communications on the matter were in keeping with that pattern.
I asked NASA last March whether Nelson would be involved in the April 5-7 FSLF. In a March 26 email, Acting Press Secretary Faith McKie noted that the NASA facility where the event was held is privately operated and said, “There is no NASA involvement.”
When I asked NASA spokesperson Steven Siceloff whether Nelson had discussed or considered participating in the FSLF prior to my inquiry, he said NASA would not elaborate beyond McKie’s statement.
NASA also shielded Nelson’s involvement with the FSLF by redacting some calendar entries.
In its response to my public-records request, NASA redacted both of Nelson’s calendar items on the day the Florida forum kicked off. There were no items listed on his public calendar for Saturday or Sunday, the second and third days of the forum.
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NASA justified the redactions by citing legal exemptions for ostensibly unofficial events, even though participants were well aware Nelson was NASA’s administrator. And even though the event was at a NASA facility, albeit one privately operated.
NASA did not redact Nelson’s participation in a Fellowship event that I hadn’t yet asked about, earlier in the year.
I submitted multiple public-records requests with NASA, requesting any correspondence Nelson had with FSLF organizers. NASA said they found nothing.
A NASA official who handled my request told me that Nelson was required to forward emails from any personal email accounts if they relate to official business. Those would have been searched, too, the official said.
After I told NASA that I knew about Nelson’s involvement, a spokesperson said, “All Americans, including government employees, are permitted to exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of religion in their personal capacity on their own time. Administrator Nelson has abided by these rules throughout his 48-year public service career.”
The statement didn’t address the rules regarding what Nelson did in his official capacity. And, of course, I hadn’t asked about Nelson’s right to work with The Fellowship. I asked whether he was doing so.
But NASA appears somewhat fuzzy on which Fellowship events are public or private.
The FSLF was redacted as private, after I asked about it.
But The Fellowship’s NPB Gathering events earlier in the year — which I hadn’t yet asked about — were left intact. Neither NASA nor Nelson, in other words, exercised the legal option to redact the Jan. 31 or Feb. 1 entries as personal activities.
There is a possible, innocent explanation for NASA leaving those two listings unredacted. The agency might have fallen prey to the confusion The Fellowship has created around the (unofficial) status of both events.
The Fellowship has taken great pains to create the impression that its annual, multi-day conference at the Washington Hilton — known by various names over the years — is an official government function. It’s not, but when I asked about it in November, NASA responded as if it were.
And then revised their answer.
Here’s where it gets a little complicated. The Fellowship spun off the National Prayer Breakfast (NPB) into a separate Capitol Hill event back in 2023. That one, the NPB, is now run by a private foundation (which isdominated by Fellowship insiders).
The Fellowship rebranded their Hilton events as the NPB Gathering. If you’re confused, it shouldn’t be surprising that NASA might have been, too.
But the spokesperson echoed The Fellowship’s myth that the events are run by members of Congress. A small handful of members are involved, but The Fellowship runs the NPB Gathering and its offshoot, the NPB Foundation, runs the Capitol Hill event.
Which is not what NASA said:
“The National Prayer Breakfast is run by a 24-member committee of Members of Congress and, as such, is recognized as an official Congressional event. The Administrator participates in his official capacity.”
The Fellowship used to get a couple dozen members to let their names be used every year for the invitations, to help get bigshots to attend. But The Fellowship has always run it. So that part wasn’t true — of either event.
Also, if NASA were saying that Nelson also attended The Fellowship’s NPB Gathering in his official capacity as administrator, that would be an extraordinary admission. Either way, the spokesperson changed their answer, on their own.
Without me even responding to the first statement, they sent a followup email the next day, revising their description of the National Prayer Breakfast. It was still untrue, but it dropped the falsehood that a 24-member congressional committee runs it.
“The National Prayer Breakfast is run by Members of Congress and, as such, is recognized as an official Congressional event.”
In my followup email, I asked where and when the NPB had been recognized as an official event. I also asked whether the fictions about Congress running it originated with Nelson or a proxy. I also asked NASA to address its conflation of the Hilton and Capitol Hill events. The spokesperson didn’t respond. (I almost can’t blame them; it’s head-spinning stuff.)
The spokesperson asked not to be identified by name, but is a former aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH). As I reported earlier this month, Hassan is serving as “honorary co-chair” of next month’s National Prayer Breakfast (which has continued to get funding from The Fellowship).
It’s worth noting that my initial inquiries to NASA appear to have made their way outside the agency.
After I contacted NASA, a University of North Florida Instagram posting about the event was changed to drop a school administrator’s name and contact info.
When I first approached NASA, the FSLF was proclaiming on its home page, as late as March 10, that the event would take place at the Kennedy Space Center. As of March 21, after my first inquiry, that reference disappeared.
As I reported, Jesus was the only leader listed initially as a basis for the forum’s discussions. Afterwards, other historic figures miraculously joined him.
I’m a veteran journalist and TV news producer who’s worked at MSNBC, CNN, ABCNews, The Daily Show, Air America Radio, and TYT. You can support my reporting with a donation or paid subscription. Thank you.