Has NASA Given Up On Planet Earth? | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.14.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.15.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.16.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-07.17.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.11.25

Sun, Jul 23, 2006

Has NASA Given Up On Planet Earth?

Exploring "Home Planet" No Longer Part Of MS

This just in -- NASA is no longer in the business of protecting our planet. For the first time since 2002, NASA's mission statement makes no mention of the planet Earth.

The New York Times reports that for the past four years, NASA's mission statement 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."

Since early February, however, NASA's mission statement -- placed on all its budget and planning documents -- now reads "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."

No mention is made of exploring... or protecting... terra firma.

NASA spokesman David E. Steitz told the Times the change was made to bring NASA's stated goals in line with President Bush's aim for manned spaceflight to the moon and Mars -- but that explanation isn't sitting well with many NASA scientists, who fear the omission means NASA is no longer concerned with projects dealing with such global issues as climate change, and greenhouse emissions.

“We refer to the mission statement in all our research proposals that go out for peer review, whenever we have strategy meetings,” said 25-year NASA veteran Philip B. Russell, an atmospheric chemist at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. “As civil servants, we’re paid to carry out NASA’s mission. When there was that very easy-to-understand statement that our job is to protect the planet, that made it much easier to justify this kind of work.”

Furthermore, NASA researchers say the change was made without consulting the agency's 19,000 employees -- an issue Stietz attributed to NASA administrator Michael Griffin's "headquarters-down" style of management.

“I don’t think there was any mal-intent or idea of exclusion,” Steitz added.

That doesn't wash, however, with James E. Hansen -- the NASA climatologist who in February claimed political appointee George Deutsch threatened him for speaking out about the potential dangers from greenhouse gases.

“They’re making it clear that they have the authority to make this change, that the president sets the objectives for NASA, and that they prefer that NASA work on something that’s not causing them a problem,” said Hansen, who directs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, on the new mission statement.

FMI: www.nasa.gov

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.15.25): Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach

Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach An approach conducted while operating on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan which authorizes the pilot of an aircraft to proceed >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.15.25)

“When l became the Secretary of Defense, I committed to rebuild our military to match threats to capabilities. Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (07.15.25)

Aero Linx: Stearman Restorers Association Welcome to the Stearman Restorers Association. The Stearman Restorers Association is an independent “Not for Profit” 501C-3 Co>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Kjelsrud Gary Kitfox

Airplane Exhibited A Partial Loss Of Engine Power When It Was About Halfway Down The Runway Analysis: The pilot of the experimental amateur-built airplane was departing from his pr>[...]

NTSB Prelim: Cessna A150L

The Flight Path Was Consistent With Low-Altitude Maneuvering On June 18, 2025, about 0922 mountain standard time, a Cessna A150L airplane, N6436F, was substantially damaged when it>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC