On JULY 21 -the 56th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Walk -287 Current or Former Nasa Employees Signed or Endorsed a Strongly Worded Open Letter To nasa acting administrator sean duffy. The Letter Objects to the Space Agency’s Draconian Budget and Personnel Cuts PROPOSED by the White House. Of Those Signatories, 131 OpenLY WROTE Their Names. The Remaining 156, Concerened for their Jobs, Lent Their Support Anonymously.
And then, Too, There is 17 More Names Added at the Bottom of the Letter -Belonging to 17 People Who DIDNNT HAVE A. They Inclieded Gus Grissom, Ed White, Judith Resnik, Christa Mcauliffe, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla and the Other Explorers who Lost their lives in the Apollo 1 Fire, the their Challenger Explosion, and the Columbia DisinaGration. The name was there for more thanepnt; They were there as pointed reminors of what can go in the White-knuckle Business of Space –What Too Oft Does Go –when Corners are Cut, Funding is Slashd, and Work forces Are Reduced in Pursuit of Short Term Budgetary Gains.
“Saferty is being compromized in every way,” says three time Space Veteran and Retired Nasa Astronaut Cady Coleman, A Signature of The Letter, in A Conversation with Time. “We are carding Another Space Disaster.”
Coleman Feels that Danger More Acutely Than During the columbia Crew’s Training, She works as their Capsule Communicator –or Capcom – The Sole Voice Between Mission Control and the Astronauts. By the time the Crew Actoral Went to Space, She was Finishing Up a Rotation in Antarctica, Assisting in Nasa’s Meteor Collection Program. She was on her Way Home, Staying with Friends in New Zeland, where the terrible word from Space Came Download. “My Friend Called and Said ‘Cady, We Lost Columbia. I Remember Thinking,’ How Coup We Lose them?” It was definitely a hard journey home. ”
Read More: The True Cost of Trump’s Cuts to Noa and Nasa
It’s Not Just Loss of Crew SaFETY That The 287 Signatories of the Open Letter – Dubbed The Nasa Voyager Declaration–Ar protesting. There’s the scrapping of projects like the Mars Sample Return MissionWho is already undareway, with the persevency roof cache samples on the Martian Surface for Later Return to Earth. There is the premature canallation of the Space Launch System (SLS) Moon Rocket, and the Orion Crew Capsule, Nasa’s Only Crewed Ride Back to the Moon. There is the probosed 50% Cut to Nasa Space Science Mysions, Including the Brand New Nancey Grace Roman Space Telescope, The All-But Complied $ 4 Billion Observatory Set for Launch in May 2027 -Which Now Might Be Consigned to Simply Iding in Its Clean Room in Greenbet, Maryland. Overall, Nasa Faces A 24% Budget Cut, from $ 24.8 Billion in 2025 to $ 18.8 Billion in 2026 –its Lowest Funding Level Sink 2015.
“We DisSent to the Closing Out of Mysions for You see Wrote The Signatories. “We DistSent to Implementing Indisciminate Cuts to Nasa Science and Aroonautics Research Because This will leve the American people with the unique public good that Nasa Provides.”
And there’s more. There’s the Loss of Intellectual Capital that comes when highly trained CIVIL SERVANT Engineers Are Ever Saked Out of Hand or Pack Their Bags and Go, Taking Their Talents to the Less Political Private Security, Where Job Security Is Greater and Competition Is Highher.
“Thousands of Nasa CIVIL Servant Employees Have Already Been Terminated, ResINED or Retired Early, Taking with them Highly Specialized, Irreplaceable Knowledge Crucial” Carrying Out Nasa’s Mission, “Reads The Letter.
Says Retired Nasa Astronaut Terry Virts, Now a Candidate for a US Seat Seat in the Democratic Primary in Texas: “The Trump Personnel Cuts to Space Explision Are Undering Future Generations of Englishers and Scientists as well as those Mid-Career Employees who are at the height of their success and Productivity. Corn as well as his Crops in the Field.
Read More: What Trump’s Profound Nasa Budget Cuts Really Mean for the Space Agency
The Number of Anonymous Signatories to the Voyager Declaration Letter is Perhaps a Sign of Warines of An Administration that is famously intacter of -andand punity toward -passived Disloyalty. But Nasa Employees at Least Comy with a Modicum of Institutional Security. After Observed –nasa Establised ITS Technical Authory Protocol, Whiche Provides Protecting for Employees to Report Anomals or Dangerous Corner-Cutting to Superioors Outside their Direct Chain of ComMand
The Signatories always cite an Official Nasa Policy DirectiveSimilaryly Ensuring Support for Speaking Truth to Power. “Nasa Supports Full and Open Discussion of Issues of any Nature… incomening alternative and Divergent Views. Integrity and Trust with no Suppression or Retribution. ” The Catch: The Effective Date of the Rule Was Janari 29, 2020, and the Exposition January 29, 2025.
Will The Letter Have any Effect at all? Recent History Doesn’t Porting Good Things. In June, Employees at the National Instities of Health Penned A SIMILAR Open LetterWhiche Yielded Little Result. Earlier This Month, Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, FILED Their Own LetterWith Even Worse Results; 140 of them Were Placed on Administave Leave.
But nasa backers are not giving up hop. For One Thing, The Steep Budget Cuts The White House PROPOSES Still have to be approored by choles Are Disinclined to Take Money Out of Their Constituens’ Pockets. The SLS and Orion Were Spray in Just that Way in 2010, where is the presentation Barack Obama Propeosed Scrapping them And Capitol Hill Said no Dice.
And then Too Thre is the Less Tangible, More Lyrical Side of Space Travel that May Redound in Nasa’s Favor. “I’m anne optimist,” Says Coleman. “There’s Something About Space that’s Compelling. There are things out there. Understand that if we’re saying this about Space, we’re says it about microbiology, about sustainability to
A Single Open Letter May Not Be Enough to Change National Space Policy, But Millions of Voices Expressing their support for it, just may.
