A Call to Action to Save Space Science

“SL3–130–3130 (July-September 1973) — An excellent view of the southern aurora, luminous bands or streamer of light, in the Southern Hemisphere, as photographed from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The space station was moving into the sunlight when this picture was taken.”

When Bruce McCandless and I started writing Star Bound, our survey of the American space program, we knew the Artemis program was on shaky ground. NASA had just flown Artemis I around the moon, but the program had already proven to be expensive and subject to frequent delays. Sure enough, shortly after the book’s publication, the Trump Administration announced its plans to truncate Artemis, with an evident preference for the upside of Elon Musk’s big (but still unproven) Starship.

Fair enough. Bruce and I aren’t rocket scientists, and we’ll defer to the experts on the best way to proceed to the moon and beyond. What neither of us was ready for, though, was the Administration’s dramatic proposed cuts to NASA’s science budget, and the layoffs and project cancellations that will ensue.

As we argue at some length in Star Bound, the benefits that space science brings to the U.S. extend far beyond headlines about space station crews and suborbital tourist flights. Space science pays dividends in knowledge, prestige, soft power, and national security. Imperiling projects like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is intended to study one of the universe’s most profound mysteries — dark energy — and is achingly close to being ready for launch, is short-sighted and makes no financial sense.

Funding NASA is not a political matter. It’s a matter that affects anyone who thinks our future lies in the stars. If you care, get involved. Call or write to your senator. Talk to your friends. Visit the Planetary Society at https://www.planetary.org/save-nasa-science and sign a handy online letter on this subject. Star Bound is occasionally tongue-in-cheek in considering space exploration history, but trust us, we’re dead serious about the future. It’s time to get involved.

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Star Bound: A Beginner’s Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard’s Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between by Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III is available wherever books are sold.