Articles

Kate Howells

Space science costs money. Here's why it's worth the investment.

Jack Kiraly

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have a long-standing partnership that has resulted in spectacular science missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

Jack Kiraly

An overview of the 2023 Independent Review Board report on the state and future of Mars Sample Return.

The Planetary Society

An interview with environmental policy expert Eric Roesch about what made the April 2023 Starship test launch so environmentally harmful, and why the Federal Aviation Administration may ultimately be to blame.

Casey Dreier

After nearly two decades of consideration, NASA made a formal commitment to NEO Surveyor, an asteroid-hunting space telescope.

Casey Dreier

Republicans regain control of the House. The Senate remains under Democratic control. This divided governance could slow down the pace of space legislation, even for “must-pass” items like NASA's annual budget.

Casey Dreier

A massive space telescope to search for signs of life on hundreds of Earth-like exoplanets is the official recommendation of the U.S. astronomy community.

Casey Dreier

Disney’s global box office revenue for Avengers. The amount of money Google makes in 6 days. The cost of NASA's Perseverance rover is less than you might think.

Casey Dreier

NASA's commercial crew program stands to be the agency's lowest-cost human spacecraft effort in nearly 60 years.

Casey Dreier

This unique, comprehensive dataset includes the full budget history, by year, of every NASA planetary science mission and related activities.

Casey Dreier

New legislation proposed in the House of Representatives would radically shift NASA's human spaceflight efforts away from the Moon and back to Mars.

Casey Dreier

NASA's final 2020 budget rejected every major cut proposed by the Trump Administration, increased funding for popular congressional projects such as the Space Launch System, and underfunded several key administration proposals, including a human-qualified lunar lander and low-Earth orbit commercialization projects.

Casey Dreier

The end of the Space Shuttle, the rise of public-private partnerships, and the return to the Moon. As the 2010s come to a close, what were the most impactful events that shaped U.S. space policy?

Detlef Koschny

Defending the planet from the hazard of potential asteroid impacts requires investments from the whole world. In Europe, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union both support work to understand and mitigate the threats from near-Earth objects.

Casey Dreier

The White House released a long-awaited supplemental budget request for NASA today. It proposes an additional $1.6 billion for an accelerated human spaceflight effort to land on the Moon in 2024. This boosts the President's budget request for NASA to $22.6 billion in fiscal year 2020, which is approximately $1.1 billion or 5% more than the amount provided by Congress last year.

On March 27, 2019, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies held a hearing titled, “NASA’s FY 2020 Budget Request.”

Casey Dreier

The partial government shutdown that shuttered NASA continues with no end in sight. The U.S. space program sits idle, the vast majority of its workforce sent home. Space science and exploration projects are disrupted. Paychecks are absent. And an unsettling realization has dawned on hundreds of thousands of public employees and contractors affected by the shutdown: this time is different.

Casey Dreier

A partial government shutdown has shuttered NASA's operations for at least a week. Critical programs like the International Space Station will continue. This is the third shutdown of 2018 and another pointless disruption for the hardworking men and women at the U.S. space agency.

Casey Dreier

The 2018 midterms swept away a number of NASA advocates in Congress, though looming budgetary battles may end up having more direct impacts on space than any one elected official.

Jason Callahan

Planetary Society Policy Adviser Jason Callahan summarizes his paper he presented at the 2017 International Astronautical Congress in Australia, where he examined NASA's low-cost Discovery program and how federal policies directed at higher education initially bolstered planetary science into a viable field.