You'd think the Bush administration's NASA cronies would have picked up on a few things after the
George Deutsch debacle, but then again you really don't hear much about a Lessons Learned Department in the White House.
Of course, if the Deutsch Affair taught them nothing, then they certainly had another opportunity when Bush et al. tried to silence Dr. James Hansen's views on global warming.
But then again, when you're on a roll why not go for the trifecta? From the Times:
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. In this year's budget and planning documents, the agency's mission is "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."
A NASA spokesman claimed the change was made to reflect Bush's emphasis (if you can really call it that) on manned space exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Apparently the change was made without consulting any of the space agency's employees.
The Times piece describes how this is no small issue to either current NASA researchers or the historical mission of the agency.
The startling aspect of this latest example of cro-magnon thinking is that in the previous instances of scientific blackballing at NASA the administration had tried to silence or spin theories, ideas, or studies that had already been conducted. In this instance, Bush & Co. are trying to eliminate inconvenient conclusions by attempting to refocus the agency's scientific compass away from atmospheric and climatological studies altogether.
It's difficult to presume that a bunch of appointed PR hacks are going to be able to retrain the professional curiosities and inquisitive natures of thousands of scientists by editing a mission statement, but it's serves as yet another example in a long line of disgraceful incidents that demonstrate this administration's outright contempt for the facts.