The Space Advocate Newsletter, July 2026

This month

It was a mere half-century ago that humans first set eyes upon the vast plains of Mars. Well, robotic eyes, that is, hoisted by NASA's Viking 1 lander on July 20, 1976. Before Viking, Mars was known only from above, thanks to Soviet and U.S. spacecraft, or via telescope, distorted by the convulsions of Earth's atmosphere. The surface of Mars was the realm of human imagination; it was Viking that made Mars real.

This was the first golden age of planetary exploration. In the wake of Apollo, and during the interim development of the Space Shuttle, NASA pivoted to robotic exploration as a more cost-effective and scientifically productive alternative to human spaceflight. The twin Voyagers launched not long after, and the same decade saw the first mission to Mercury and probes to the Venusian surface.

Growing up in the 1980s, I was awed by Viking's panoramic view of Chryse Planitia. Any book about the Solar System would feature that first image, or that of its twin. As a third grader, I built my own Viking lander in LEGO, complete with folding landing legs and a swiveling antenna. Viking was clearly a compelling mission: the model was stolen after I brought it to school the following week and never returned.

Alas, the political system does not assess value in terms of stolen LEGO sets. Though Viking appeared to signal the start of a new era of Mars exploration, it instead served as an apex. After the first few days, media coverage melted away. Science budgets grew tight, and by the early 1980s were in free fall. NASA would not launch another Mars mission for 17 years.

It was the frustration at this lack of excitement and political support that drove Carl Sagan to create "Cosmos," and, with Bruce Murray and Lou Friedman, to start The Planetary Society not long after.

Mars exploration rebounded in the 1990s and hit a new high in the 2000s. We are once again facing a serious decline in space science funding and an abandonment of Mars exploration. This time, at least, The Planetary Society is well positioned and effective in resisting these cuts, and stands ready to help define the next era of the red planet.

One lesson: Viking's success did not come cheaply. The Viking project, consisting of two landers and two orbiters (and various flight-ready spares), cost taxpayers approximately $1 billion during the early 1970s, roughly $8.5 billion today. That places Viking among NASA's most expensive science missions, after the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. But, often, that's what it takes to do something that has never been done.

Until next month,

Casey Dreier
Chief of Space Policy
The Planetary Society

Want to do something?

The FY 2027 budget process has stalled in the U.S. Senate. A temporary budget extension through December now looks likely. Please continue writing in support of rejecting cuts to NASA science during this interim period, and to keep the pressure on.

What I’m reading this month

Spacejam! (substack.com)
This is a new space policy substack written by Rebecca Lowe, Max Harden, and Aakrith Harikumar all at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. They aim to bring a “classical liberal” perspective to modern space policy.

NASA sure seems to be asking an awful lot of private space stations (arstechnica.com)
The agency finally released its draft Request for Proposals for commercial space stations. This article builds upon many of the topics I discussed with Clayton Swope on the July episode of the Space Policy Edition podcast on this very topic.

NASA Awards More CLPS Contracts, May Send Mars Rover Engineering Model to the Moon (spacepolicyonline.com)
The contracts keep rolling for “Moon base”, and a surprise announcement that NASA may send the engineering testbed twin of the Perseverance rover to the Moon (more on that soon).

Ground Truth

Data visualization and analysis

This chart compares the annual funding for Viking against every other NASA Mars mission, including the two flagships, Curiosity and Perseverance. All values normalized to FY 2025 dollars via the NASA New Start Index. Viking was dramatically more expensive than any other project, though it did produce four highly-capable spacecraft.