James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
From today's New York Times comes a story that should worry everyone:
From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can."In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" deleted. In this year's budget and planning documents, the agency's mission is "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."
Continued below the fold.
E. Steitz, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the aim was to square the statement with President Bush's goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars.This makes me angry. Very, very angry, indeed.But the change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the "understand and protect" phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Comments
"In early February, the statement was quietly altered..."
Any idea who ordered or approved this change?
Posted by: Hamsterbaffle | July 22, 2006 12:54 PM
Your link is not an "a href=" I think you accidentally made it a "mailto."
On the article? Pathetic. Nasa should be spending more time studying the Earth rather than unrealistic Mars expeditions. It seems like yet another global warming deflection by the Bush adminstration.
Posted by: quitter | July 22, 2006 1:47 PM
to pioneer the future
Can I just say: wtf??? How exactly does one "pioneer the future"? If they've invented a way of getting to the future faster than everyone else, I'm sure we'd all be interested in hearing it.
Get a goddamn proofreader.
Posted by: Corkscrew | July 22, 2006 3:18 PM
Translation:
"to pave the way for American military dominance of outer space."
Posted by: Hume's Ghost | July 23, 2006 1:56 AM
They should have just changed the name to "National Space Agency."
Posted by: Joseph j7uy5 | July 23, 2006 11:31 PM
If your representative is on the space committee, please contact em and ask what this nonsense is about...
Posted by: Capt. Jean-Luc Pikachu | July 24, 2006 12:59 AM
Here is the link to the times article
http://tinyurl.com/nqmdy
Posted by: Eric | July 25, 2006 3:53 PM