[X] My Assistant

[JRehling]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/science/22nasa.html


From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “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.”

In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted.
[...]

[dvandorn]

Oh, I agree, Phil -- the mission statement don't mean squat to the real operations of an agency. But in politics (which is what drives these kinds of things, whether we like it or not), appearance means more than substance.

This just smells to me like politicians trying to avoid embarassment in the public forum. This change (however official or unofficial, and however meaningless to the ongoing NASA EO programs) lets any number of scientifically ignorant, self-serving politicians point to the "adjusted" mission statement and say "What the heck do they have to say about it, it isn't even what they're supposed to be doing!"

Also remember, those same politicians don't give a tinker's damn whether or not what they say is truthful, as long as they can use it to sway similarly ignorant voters to vote for them.

It has nothing to do with science, or truth. It has to do with manipulating people to vote against their actual best interests. That's what I find distressing about this kind of thing happening.

Perhaps, as rational and concerned citizens, those of us who live in the U.S. should contact NASA and ask just why this has been removed from their publically-stated mission statement. Ask them if they have had their EO programs removed from their charter, who is now going to manage them, etc. Make them aware that we see through the political charade, and want NASA as an agency to respond to this kind of petty word-mincing with more than a shrug and a denial...?

My anticipation is that NASA would respond to such questions by saying that they have the same EO portfolio they always had, and that the mission statement means nothing. Which is something that can be brought up whenever a politician tries to use the statement I mentioned above...

-the other Doug