tonyhaile.com
Nasa has quietly changed its mission statement to eradicate any mention of its original responsibility to understand and protect our home planet.
Old Version
“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.”
New Version
“to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”
Not only does the government doubt that important changes might be happening to our planet, they want our best scientists to stop studying it completely. This seems to be just the latest in a series of interventions aimed at subverting the work of Nasa and I have to say it makes me a little mad. Nasa should be the crucible of our learning and our inspiration, it should be our vehicle for understanding not only space but our unique place in it, Nasa should be the last place we should try to corrupt with political machinations and supression. To do so is to corrupt our future.
The new version lacks any spirit. And you’re right, nearly every astronaut seems in awe of earth as seen from space and comes back with a whole new appreciation for home, Quotes from astronauts. Then there’s Carl Sagan’s opening Pale Blue Dot address. This is surely an important aspect of NASA and should be acknowledged as such in its mission statement.
Couldn’t agree more and thanks for those links, some of those quotes are fantastic!