A group of 30 Nobel laureates, NASA astronauts, former NASA senior officials, and other space boosters Tuesday sent a protest letter to Rep. Bart Gordon, D- Tennessee, the Chairman of the House Science Committee, demanding significant changes to the House NASA authorization bill.
“When you review the list of 30 distinguished signatories, I believe you will see that this letter may well represent one of the most distinguished yet diverse sets of people to ever put forth a unified position on our nation’s space program,” said Scott Hubbard, Former Director, NASA Ames Research Center in California and one of the signatories.
The group expressed support for President Barack Obama’s plans to increase the agency’s budget for technology development, robotic missions and commercial human spaceflight.
“We have watched with concern in recent years as NASA’s programs for advanced technology, commercial spaceflight, student research, and robotic exploration have been scaled back or postponed,” the letter said.
“The data are sobering: since 2005, NASA’s technology program has been cut by more than 50 percent; robotic exploration precursor missions were eliminated; NASA was unable to fund commercial systems for carrying crew to the International Space Station despite a pressing need to avoid extended reliance on the Russian Soyuz; and NASA-sponsored university research was sharply curtailed.”
The group said it wanted the White House’s strategy to revitalize and expand investments in technology, commercial spaceflight, student research, and robotic “must be retained in any consensus solution reached by Congress and the White House.”
The letter follows.
