14 DAY TRIAL // In a bid to save more money for the federal budget, the White House has just ordered the American space agency to cancel two important satellites for climate science, that were only last year approved to launch in 2017.
These missions could have produced reliable scientific data about the changes our planet is going through, that may have helped sway policymakers and the general public in favor of taking action.
Interestingly, the budget for Earth sciences that NASA got for 2012 is on the rise from 2011 levels, but still the White House made the decision to ask for this cancellation, Space reports.
According to the agency, the two satellites that will no longer be built are called the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) and the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) missions,
The announcement was made in a February 24 interview by the associate director for flight programs at the NASA Earth Science Division, Steve Volz. Officials at NASA say that the decision has nothing to do with the failed launch of the Glory satellite, which happened on March 4.
The canceled satellites were recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) 2007 Earth Science decadal survey, and were considered two of four top-tier missions NASA needed to carry out.
Documents show that the spacecraft were supposed to cost about $1.2 billion between 2012 and 2015.
“Removal of these missions was not what we desired and not what the administration desired, but it was a clear recognition and acknowledgement of the budget issues we face as a nation,” Volz added.
“It’s cleaner to be allowed to delete the scope that goes along with the dollars than to have to figure out how to do more with less,” the official went on to say.
Of the NCR proposals, only the Soil Moisture Active-Passive and ICESat-2 satellites are still on track for their 2014 and 2016 launch dates, respectively.
“They’ve decided to basically reduce the funding greatly to these two missions and put them on the side of the road,” said in a February 25 interview Richard Anthes, the co-chairman of the NCR committee that produced the 2007 decadal survey.
“I think that strategy at least makes sense. If you don’t have enough money to do everything, cancel some of them or put some of them on indefinite hold and continue making good progress on the others,” he went on to say.
Anthes also holds an appointment as the president of the Boulder, Colorado-based University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.