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Projects: S.O.S: Save Our Science!Campaign UpdatesDecember 18, 2007: Congress Hears Our SOS! The Planetary Society applauds Congress’ work on the omnibus Appropriations bill, which increases funding for planetary exploration and restores funds to science within a total $17.3 billion for NASA. This action to appropriate funds for 2008 comes three months into the fiscal year. The science increase is especially gratifying to Planetary Society members, who have fought for two years to restore funding to NASA's science budget as part of the Society's Save Our Science! campaign. November 8 , 2007: Arecibo Statement - Protecting the Earth On Thursday, November 8, 2007, The Planetary Society presented a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics urging Congress to prevent Earth's largest radio telescope -- Arecibo -- from closing due to lack of funds, leaving the planet more vulnerable to a future meteorite impact. Download PDF (136KB) » October 4, 2007 : U.S. Senate Votes to Add $1 Billion to NASA Budget This afternoon the U.S. Senate passed the NASA Restoration Act of 2008, providing NASA with an additional $1 billion in appropriation for fiscal year 2008. The additional funds are to reimburse NASA for the costs of returning the space shuttle to flight status, following the Columbia accident in 2003. The measure required 60 votes to pass, as it is considered an emergency funding bill. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) spearheaded the amendment with co-sponsors that included Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Senator's Mikulski, Hutchison, Shelby (R-AL), Nelson (D-FL), Martinez (R-FL) and Landrieu (D-LA) all spoke on behalf of the amendment. Only Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) spoke against it. Sensing overall support of the bill, Senator Mikulski called for unanimous consent by voice vote. Hearing no dissent, the measure was adopted. read more » July 27, 2007 : Administration Threatens to Veto Bill to Increase NASA Funding The U.S. Administration is strongly opposing passage of the House of Representatives Appropriation Bill (H.R. 3093) that would increase funding for NASA space science. In a “Statement of Administration Policy,” the White House promises that, if the bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee “were presented to the President, he would veto the bill.” The statement specifies that “the Administration does not endorse funding in excess of the request for Aeronautics, Education, and Science.” Click here to download and read the full statement (PDF 40KB) . Despite the Administration's position the House of Representatives passed the bill with more than a 2/3 bi-partisan majority. read more » July 18 , 2007 : Save Our Science Progress In Congress Both the House and Senate Appropriations committees have approved increases in NASA’s 2008 budget, a victory for The Planetary Society’s Save Our Science campaign. However, we still need to fight for more Mars funding. The House increased NASA’s spending by nearly $300 million more than the agency requested, a $1.3 billion over 2006. The Senate increased NASA by about $150 million, a $1.15 billion above the 2006 budget. read more » May 25 , 2007 : Our Message is Being Heard In April, we took our Save Our Science campaign to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. The subcommittee, which deals with the NASA budget, invited me to testify as an outside witness on NASA's funding. read more » April 24, 2007 : Planetary Society Urges Congress to “Restore NASA’s Vision” “NASA's budget should be increased as was originally envisioned in order to restore its scientific underpinnings and to prepare for human exploration of the solar system,” Louis Friedman, Executive Director of the Planetary Society, today testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. read more » January 31, 2007: U.S. House of Representatives
Appropriators Cut NASA Funding; The House Appropriations Committee has passed its version of the 2007 federal government budget. In it, funding for NASA was cut by $550 million (approximately 3.2%) from the amount proposed by the Bush Administration last February. The $16.2 billion budgeted for NASA for 2007 is the same as the amount approved for 2006. To become law, the Appropriations Committee’s proposal still must be approved by the full House and Senate. read more » January 26, 2007: 10 Science Organizations Support NASA Space Science We are still awaiting final action by the Congress on the fiscal year 2007 Appropriations for NASA. A "Continuing Resolution" will be passed by the Congress, but what will be specified in it is uncertain.read more » January 19, 2007: Planetary Society Petitions President To Save Space Science The Planetary Society today delivered a petition with more than 5,000 signatures to the White House calling on President Bush to restore funding for space science and exploration in his 2008 budget proposal to the U.S. Congress. read more » November 22 , 2006: Congressional Inaction Leaves Science Still Devastated Congress is back to work in what is known as a lame-duck session. (This means Congress members are still serving after the November election but before the start of new terms, which will begin in January.) As I described in my last update, Congress still has not acted on many government budget items, including NASA's fiscal year 2007 budget. In a memo to employees, NASA published its own analysis of the status of the budget consideration by Congress . NASA rejected the House Appropriations Committee's support for a Europa mission, as well as for Terrestrial Planet Finder and the Space Interferometry Mission, citing that they would do more studies instead. read more » October 25, 2006: Dog Days for Save Our Science The dog days of August turned into fall political campaigning rather quickly -- so quickly that the U.S. Congress could not find time to wrap up the NASA budget, or to provide funding for most of the other federal government agencies. Thus, NASA's budget status is now the same as it was in July: the House appropriations committee has passed a bill with no total increase for NASA, but did direct additional funding for science and for a Europa mission new start, while the Senate committee did not address the science issue specifically, but passed an amendment increasing NASA's overall funding. read more » August 28, 2006:
The Sorry State of Science Politics in NASA "The resignation this month of three noted leaders in space science from the NASA Advisory Council is a disaster. It is the third blow to science struck this year by NASA. First the U.S. Administration presented a budget to Congress severely cutting back space science research and missions, including great exploration missions to Mars, Europa, and searching for terrestrial planets around other stars. Then, for no discernable reason, they announce that understanding the Earth is not a goal of NASA's anymore -- despite the fact that understanding the Earth has been one of the principal products of space exploration. And now the NASA Administrator says he does not want the considered advice of scientists about space science and exploration -- he wants it only about the decisions already made for the new exploration program focused entirely on the Moon and NASA's already decided architecture for it." Note: From August 28-September 1 Louis Friedman was the guest blogger at The Planetary Society Weblog. The preceding commentary is excerpted from his blog entry on August 28. August 11 , 2006: NASA Mission Statement Altered In another attack on science at NASA, it was reported that the NASA mission statement was altered to remove the phrase, "understand and protect the Earth." We regard this as another attempt to diminish the importance of science at NASA and its use as a guide for space exploration. Helping to understand the Earth is one of the principal products and benefits of space science, and using this information to protect our planet is one of NASA's great achievements. The Society can think of no reason to eliminate this aspect of NASA's mission. read more » July 14, 2006: Senate Appropriations Committee Acts on NASA Budget Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed a $16.75 billion
budget for NASA and also passed the Mikulski-Hutchison amendment for a $1 billion
dollar “emergency” supplement to pay for shuttle repair and recovery.
(The amendment actually specifies $2 billion over two years). The final total
not including the supplement was $500 million more than the previous year and
very close to the level passed by the House of Representatives. July 6, 2006: S.O.S. Take Action Update We -- all of us in the Planetary Society -- won an important fight in the
House Appropriations Committee when they added funds for science into the NASA
budget. It wasn't everything we asked for, but it was a lot. Now, our fight
must move to the Senate Appropriations Committee, who is expected to meet on
July 11. June 23 , 2006: House Appropriations Committee Endorses Sub-committee Recommendations On Tuesday, June 20, 2006 the House Appropriations Committee endorsed the
sub-committee recommendations from June 14 including a restart for a Europa
mission . June 14 , 2006: House Subcommittee Helps Save Our Science Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies marked-up the NASA budget, prior to sending the budget to full Committee. read more » May 25, 2006: The Planetary Society Takes the Fight to Washington On May 25, 2006, the 45th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's 1961 speech to Congress launching the Apollo Program, The Planetary Society is reminding Congress of the vision needed to undertake such space ventures. On this day the Society is hosting a special presentation in Washington DC that features filmmaker James Cameron, Bill Nye the Science Guy, planetary scientist Heidi B. Hammel, and Society Executive Director Louis Friedman. read more » March 5, 2006: At the Europa Focus Group On February 26, The Planetary Society continued its campaign to save a mission to Europa by inviting the public to the NASA Ames Research Center to hear eminent scientists discuss the allure of this moon of Jupiter. Coordinated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute Europa Focus Group, the event enabled some 250 people to hear first-hand why we want to explore Europa now.
We were heartened to learn that Congressman John Culberson (R-TX), a member of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, strongly supports the Europa mission, which is one of several lost in the widespread cuts to science in NASA. We are closely coordinating with his staff to build support to overturn the Administration's decision to stop work on the Europa mission. February 13, 2006: The Fight for Science and Exploration Begins NASA has jumped the gun. Although the fiscal year 2007 budget does not take effect before October 2006, and Congress has not even approved it, NASA has already begun canceling 2006 research projects and mission studies, including the mission to Europa. Even programs Congress has voted into law are being "delayed indefinitely".
Together with The Planetary Society, you can stop this from happening. We are asking Congress to intervene and direct NASA not to cancel programs before the Congress has to chance to consider them.
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