Junior space scientists

The Voyager Declaration Dear Interim Administrator Duffy, In light of your recent appointment as Interim NASA Administrator, we bring to your attention recent policies that have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission. We, the signatories of this letter, dissent from these policies, and raise these concerns because we believe strongly in the importance of NASA's mission, which we are dedicated to uphold. Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully. Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce. We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire. Our Shared Commitment to Dissentin� Opinions We share a commitment to dissenting views in accordance with NASA Policy Directive 1000.0C, NASA supports full and open discussion of issues of any nature (e.g., programmatic, institutional), including alternative and divergent views. Diverse views are to be fostered and respected in an environment of integrity and trust with no suppression or retribution. (NPD 1000.0C, Section 3.5.5) Employees across the agency have raised concerns about recent actions to NASA leadership, yet we remain pressured to implement harmful measures. We choose to write to you directly because: (I) as Interim Administrator, you are the final step in the chain of Technical Authority, and (2) the issues we raise are agency-wide, rather than project-specific. As defined in NASA Procedural Requirement 7120 5F, Formal Dissent is "a substantive disagreement with a decision or action that an indiv…

• We dissent to changes to NASA's Technical Authority capacities that are driven by anything other than safety and mission assurance. The culture of organizational silence promoted at NASA over the last six months already represents a dangerous tum away from the lessons learned following the Columbia disaster. Changes to the system of Technical Authority, as suggested would be made in the June 25th NASA Town Hall, should be made only in the interests of improving safety, not in anticipation of future budget cuts. • We dissent to the closing out of missions for which Congress has appropriated funding because it represents a permanent loss of capability to the United States both in space and on Eatlh. Once operational spacecraft are decommissioned, they cannot be turned back on. Additionally, cancelling missions in development threatens to end the next generation of crucial observations. • We dissent to implementing indiscriminate cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research because this will leave the American people without the unique public good that NASA provides. Basic research in space science, aeronautics, and the stewardship of the Earth are inherently governmental functions that cannot and will not be taken up by the private sector. Furthermore, NASA has a nearly threefold return on investment in economic activity, and supports national security by ensuring the United States maintains its lead in science and technology. • We dissent to NASA's non-strategic staffing reductions because they will jeopardize NASA's core mission. Thousands of NASA civil servant employees have already been terminated, resigned or retired early, taking with them highly specialized, irreplaceable knowledge crucial to carrying out NASA's mission. • We dissent to canceling NASA participation in international missions because in doing so, NASA is abandoning America's allies. To date, 55 nations have signed on to the Artemis Accords, and withdrawing support from missions with our long-s…

We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at the NIH and EPA who have released similar statements concerning the administration's actions at their respective agencies. We dedicate this letter to Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee, Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon. Their legacies underpin every conversation about our shared commitment to safety and dissenting opinions at NASA.

NEW: Hundreds of NASA employees have filed a letter of formal dissent.

"We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire."

A white image with black text. On the top it says 'This is what Mars would look like if a spacecraft only got 82% of the way there.' In the middle is a very small Mars, so small you can hardly tell it is a planet or has any color at all. The bottom of the image says 'Tell Congress to fund NASA science at 100%'.

The Senate has voted to fully fund #NASA, but the budget passed by the House would still cut #ScienceFunding by 18%. While this is great progress, the fight is not over. Call your Representatives and advocate to #saveNASAscience! 🔭 #PlanetaryScience 🧪

Before Sunset with New Horizons The long-delayed sequel to my ‘Before Sunrise’-style love story with a planet that no longer exists

Today is the ten-year anniversary of New Horizon's closest approach to Pluto, when it changed our understanding of the (former) planet forever. It also changed my life, so I've written a retrospective of the last ten years I've spent with Pluto: medium.com/@adeene.dent...

See the linktree in our bio for scripts you can use!

#mars #spaceexploration #universe #sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #savenasascience

The president’s budget request would destroy American leadership in #space and take away jobs from Americans just like you. But you can help stop it – call your representatives and tell them to fund #NASA in 2026! 🔭🧪

NASA is more than rockets and moonwalks. NASA is behind much of our everyday technology. From space discovery, to Air Jordans, to CAT scans, NASA has played a role. We get it all on less than a penny of every federal dollar. Now their science may be gutted by 50%.
#NASADidThat

The Senate may be taking steps to restore NASA’s funding, but the administration is still threatening to cut more than 2000 jobs at NASA. Call your congresspeople and tell them they can’t let this happen — #NASA should be funded in full to maintain American leadership in #space! 🔭 #savenasascience

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

You can also call:

Jack Reed (D-RI) - (202) 224-4642

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) - (202) 224-2841

Christopher Coons (D-DE) - (202) 224-5042

Brian Schatz (D-HI) - (202) 224-4124

Jeff Merkley (D-OR) - (202) 224-3753

Gary Peters (D-MI) - (202) 224-6221

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) - (202) 224-4451

(continuing the Justice/Science/Related subcomm):

John Kennedy, R-LA - 202-224 4623

Bill Hagerty, R-TN - 202-224-4944

Katie Britt, R-AL - 202-224-5744

Deb Fischer, R-NE - 202-224-6551

Chris Van Hollen, D-MD – strong advocate of GSFC - (202) 224-4654

Those are the majority members, AND....

U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies:

Jerry Moran (R-KS) - (202) 224-6521

Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska - (202)-224-6665

Susan Collins, R-Maine - 202) 224-2523

Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. - (202) 224-5972

Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V. - 202-224-6472..

Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation

Jerry Moran, R-Kansas (Chairman) - 202-224-6521

John Thune, R-S.D. - 202-224-2321

Ted Budd, R-N.C. - 202-224-3154

Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri - 202-224-5721

Tim Sheehy, R-Montana - 202-224-2644

John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado - 202-224-5941

Guy reaching for a yellow ball but getting grabbed from behind by a pink monster meme. The guy is NASA, the yellow ball is "$700m for a new mars telecom satellite" but the pink monster is "trashing a working $560m Mars telecom satellite." This is referring to the fact that the president's budget request/NASA budget plan includes allotting $700m for a new telecom relay at Mars despite the fact that the maven mission like, already does that, man, and is already in orbit

NOW is the time to call your senators! Markup of the 2026 budget request will happen THIS THURSDAY (July 10). Don’t let them waste your money by defunding NASA! 🔭 #PlanetaryScience

linktr.ee/savespacesci... for email and phone scripts you can use. Which senators to contact? Glad you asked 🧵⬇️

Every living NASA science chief unites in opposition to unprecedented… The entire past leadership of NASA’s science activities have released a joint statement condemning the proposed 47% cuts proposed to the agency’s science…

Today, *every* living prior leader of NASA's science directorate have released a joint letter condemning the proposed cuts to NASA science. These individuals every administration from Reagan to Biden, and all believe these cuts are insanely destructive: www.planetary.org/press-releas...

A map of the US with the states the republican senators are from marked in red and states the democratic senators are from marked in blue: Senator Susan Collins (Republican - Maine) Senator Mitch McConnell(Republican - Kentucky) Senator Lisa Murkowski(Republican - Alaska) Senator Lindsey Graham(Republican - South Carolina) Senator Jerry Moran(Republican - Kansas) Senator John Hoeven(Republican - North Dakota) Senator John Boozman(Republican - Arkansas) Senator Shelley Moore Capito(Republican - West Virginia) Senator John Kennedy(Republican - Louisiana) Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith(Republican - Mississippi) Senator Bill Hagerty(Republican - Tennessee) Senator Katie Britt(Republican - Alabama) Senator Markwayne Mullin(Republican - Oklahoma) Senator Deb Fischer(Republican - Nebraska) Senator Mike Rounds(Republican - South Dakota) Patty Murray(Democrat - Washington) Richard Durbin(Democrat - Illinois) Jack Reed(Democrat - Rhode Island) Jeanne Shaheen(Democrat - New Hampshire) Jeff Merkley(Democrat - Oregon) Christopher Coons(Democrat - Delaware) Brian Schatz(Democrat - Hawaii) Tammy Baldwin(Democrat - Wisconsin) Chris Murphy(Democrat - Connecticut) Chris Van Hollen(Democrat - Maryland) Martin Heinrich(Democrat - New Mexico) Gary Peters(Democrat - Michigan) Kirsten Gillibrand(Democrat - New York) Jon Ossoff(Democrat - Georgia)

Are you from one of these states? Then we need your help to save American science!

The Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the President's Budget Request for science on Wednesday. People have been saying the proposed cuts "decimated" US science, but that's wrong: they are apocalyptic

Every living NASA science chief unites in opposition to unprecedented… The entire past leadership of NASA’s science activities have released a joint statement condemning the proposed 47% cuts proposed to the agency’s science…

"NASA science endeavors are exercises in long-term national commitment that pays dividends
to the American people... This proposed budget ends nearly all future investments... dozens of... missions on a combined budget that is only 3% of NASA’s annual funding." 🔭 www.planetary.org/press-releas...

Caption: Help #savenasascience! 40+ healthy spacecraft are in danger of having their funding cut to zero starting Oct 1. Check the links in our bio for how you can help. 🔭

#mars #nasa #space #spaceexploration #universe #sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #PlanetaryScience

Reading this helped--it was a useful reminder that NASA/NSF/NIH may not be totally screwed *just yet*

Call Congress & tell them NOT to waste your investment – fund MAVEN! linktr.ee/savespacesci...

#nasa #space #planetaryscience #sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #savenasascience #thatwasrude 🔭

The president's budget request would turn off MAVEN, USA’s #1 telecom asset @ #Mars, & fund a new mission that would cost taxpayers $700M… enough to fund MAVEN for >30 YEARS!

#nasa #space #planetaryscience #sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #savenasascience #thatwasrude 🔭

"...[people] managing [the canceled] missions are going to be looking for their next job," [Jim] Green said. "They’re going to be gone. Within a few months, you won’t be able to get the expertise back. And without the expertise, you don’t have the ability to run the mission safely."

"The [OMB], led by Russ Vought, has been seeking to cut the US government's science portfolio across the board...Vought appears to be moving to shut down as many of these missions as possible."

🔭 #PlanetaryScience

"the proposed cuts would cancel 41 of these missions, and another 17 would see their funding zeroed out in the near future. Nearly half of NASA's science missions would therefore end, and dozens more would receive budget cuts of 20–40 percent."

🔭 #PlanetaryScience

Final vote. 50-50. VP breaks the tie.

One single GOP Senator could have stopped this abomination. Saved millions of parents from watching their child go hungry. Saved the lives destroyed when Medicaid disappears.

They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.

#sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #savenasascience

A mosaic image of the MAVEN orbiter above Mars, with the starry sky in the background. Overlaid on both Mars and MAVEN are a mosaic of headshots and some group photos of the team members.

MAVEN is more than just a spacecraft: it’s a team. The wasteful, unstrategic budget proposed for FY26 would take away that community – and cancel 40 other missions too. Check our bio to see what you can do to help. 🔭 #PlanetaryScience

#mars #nasa #space #spaceexploration #universe

Hopefully folks have seen the NASA Mission map floating around indicating the missions that the President's FY26 Budget Request would cancel.

Here is a Heliophysics division-specific figure.

This is MAVEN, and MAVEN needs us. MAVEN relays a HUGE amount of rover data from Mars to Earth, and is the *only* dedicated space weather monitor at Mars.

The team has been asked to kill it to save $20M, while NASA asks for A HUNDRED MILLION to build a satellite to do the exact same thing!

(We are not affiliated with Socializing with Scientists / visuals by NASA SVS)

#mars #nasa #space #spaceexploration #universe #sciencenotsilence #spaceforall #sciencefunding #nasabudget #savenasascience

The MAVEN mission to Mars studies why the Red Planet is so dry & dusty compared to our lush green Earth. Listen to the MAVEN PI, Prof. Shannon Curry, tell you all about it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any podcast platform.

🧪🔭 #PlanetaryScience