The Space Advocate Newsletter, August 2026

This month

The Sun shines brightly until it doesn’t.

There are more complex ways to describe an eclipse, but I feel this captures the disjointedness inherent in the experience I had last week in northern Spain.

It’s all about the non-linearity of the process. Your brain thinks it knows where the whole thing is going. Eclipse glasses allow you to watch the steady progression of the Moon over the Sun’s disk. You notice a slight dimming (though less than you’d expect thanks to the dynamic range of your eyes). The prediction seems straightforward: this lunar disc will soon cover the Sun, and then it will be dark, like nighttime.

What your brain fails to predict, and what overwhelms you in the moment, is that a total eclipse is not about what is hidden; it’s about what is revealed in that moment. It’s an actual revelation. When the Moon reaches its apotheosis, the Sun, as you know it, is indeed gone. In its place is something much grander and fundamentally alien: a ghostly apparition radiating outward from where the Sun used to be. A black hole ringed with fire briefly dominates the night.

In that moment, your rational brain slinks away, humbled by its failure to anticipate this stepfunction change of reality. It is a moment of pure experience, you are bathed in the shadow of the sublime.

You faintly clock the sound of people screaming and hollering around you; dogs, too. You note that the stars and planets are now present in the sky, as if they weren’t to miss it themselves.

The Moon marches on. The Sun returns. But its absence lingers.

“After [an eclipse], everything is believable and credible,” wrote the Greek poet Archilochus of Thasos in the seventh century B.C.E. “Let no one be surprised at what they see, not even if wild beasts trade places with dolphins and the echoing waves of the sea become more dear to them than the land.”

Unlike Archilochus, we don’t have to fear for our understanding of the world after witnessing an eclipse. But I certainly empathize with him.

Thousands of years of scientific process separate me from Archilochus. The luxury of understanding much of the Cosmos enables our enjoyment of its sublime power rather than trembling in fear before it.

For everyone who proposes to cut space science and exploration, I wish for them to consider this.

Until next month,

Casey Dreier
Chief of Space Policy
The Planetary Society

Image: The eclipse as seen from León, Spain, on August 12th, 2026. Photo Credit: Christopher Becke.

Want to do something?

Congress is working to keep the U.S. government funded through December in what is known as a continuing resolution. The Senate recently passed this legislation and included additional text mandating a pause on implementation of the Office of Management & Budget's proposed changes to grant-making rules that would politicize scientific research.

The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy supporting H.R. 6500, functionally endorsing the Senate's CR over its House counterpart, which does not include the pause on the new grant rules.

But until this bill becomes law, the threats of the proposed rule changes and a government shutdown still loom. While Congress is on its August recess, contact your Representative and encourage them to support these important provisions of H.R. 6500.

What I’m reading this month

The Cost of a PROMISE
My article concludes that sending an engineering twin of a Mars rover to the Moon could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.

Russia Agrees to ISS Operations, Seat-Swaps, Through 2030
An important step toward maintaining reliable station operations through its planned end-of-life. Previously, Russia had only committed to joint operations through 2028.

The United States is about to wake up to the threat from China's space program
I can’t say that I agree with this perspective, but this perception is certainly the animating force in U.S. civil space policy and NASA leadership.

The value of alien friendship
Philosopher (and former Space Policy Edition podcast guest) Rebecca Lowe highlights an underappreciated “return” from space exploration: the potential for forming friendships with new consciousnesses.