After I wrote the advocacy replace for the June challenge of the Planetary Report, I couldn’t have imagined the continuing success of our advocacy efforts this yr. However on condition that NASA and the complete American house program are going through an extinction-level disaster, this shouldn’t be too stunning. As we method the midpoint of the yr, I’m excited to report that 2025 has been a banner yr for house advocacy with the launch of our Save NASA Science Marketing campaign.
Since January 1 of this yr, we’ve held extra occasions, appeared in additional publications, facilitated extra messages to Congress, and engaged extra members of the general public than at another level within the Society’s current historical past.
The advocacy for Europa Clipper is likely to be the one different marketing campaign that beats the sheer variety of actions taken to assist scientific discovery and house exploration, however that benefited from ample lead-time and planning. The Save NASA Science Marketing campaign has come collectively organically in response to the existential menace to house science, however has now shifted to be a forward-looking effort to convey collectively the general public, academia, business, and worldwide neighborhood to advance science.
The success of the Save NASA Science Marketing campaign is the direct results of the actions taken by tens of 1000’s of house advocates from around the globe. The combat just isn’t over, however we’re ready of energy.
How We Bought Right here
Simply a few months in the past, the contours of the brand new administration’s house coverage had been obscure. The Workplace of Administration & Price range (OMB) NASA funds request had not been launched, and all we knew concerning the proposal had been the rumors of main cuts and shifts of coverage being thought-about. However particulars had been scant. And people of us who rang the alarm bell had been informed that there was no approach that the Administration that after gave us Artemis, the best science funding ranges in historical past, and delivered stable house insurance policies within the first time period would flip its again on future American management in house exploration.
In a way, they had been proper. President Trump, in his inaugural handle and first remarks to a joint session of Congress, alluded to house ambitions as a precedence for the administration. So what modified?
The hazard could be traced again to at least one unelected bureaucrat – OMB Director Russ Vought – who, within the absence of Senate-confirmed NASA management or inner advocates, took benefit of the scenario by proposing an unstrategic, unprecedented, and wasteful retreat from house exploration that’s inconsistent with the President’s said curiosity in a “golden age of American innovation.” His proposed decimation of house science could be traced again to a document penned by Vought in 2022 to answer then-President Biden’s FY 2023 funds request.
To learn extra concerning the specifics of the funds request, try our Information to NASA’s Price range with useful evaluation, charts, and hyperlinks to datasets.
The Metrics
Having a look on the final six months, the Area Coverage & Advocacy workforce has been busy sharing details about the funds disaster with stakeholder teams, organizing the house neighborhood response, and connecting the general public with sources and instruments to successfully advocate for NASA.
We hosted greater than a dozen informational periods at conferences, on Capitol Hill, and on-line, together with a community budget briefing that was attended by 500 scientists.
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