Abstract
This chapter covers the first two years of the Biden Administration (2021–2022). Biden unshackled NASA and increased its Earth Sciences budget beyond the $2 billion mark. He approved a new five-satellite program for the 2020s—in line with the 2017–2027 NRC Decadal Survey. NASA plans included further study of glacial melt and sea-level rise. NASA spoke out more strongly about the threat and enhanced its sea-level change team’s outreach activity with an aim for climate projections. SWOT, a Freilich legacy and $1.2 billion next-generation satellite with CNES that looked not only at the ocean but inland seas, launched in late 2022. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to work closely on further satellite development. ESA was willing to shoulder much of the operations NASA wished to avoid in favor of pushing advanced technology and scientific breakthroughs. Working out this balance between R&D and long-term monitoring, as well as relationships among agencies to further satellite development, would be up to NASA’s new Earth Sciences Director, Karen St. Germain, an electrical engineer who had headed NOAA’s weather satellite activity.
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Notes
- 1.
Paul Voosen, “Seas are Rising Faster Than Ever,” Science (Nov. 26, 2020), 901.
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
Alexandra Witze, “NASA Reboots Its Role in Fighting Climate Change, Nature, (May 7, 2021).
- 4.
Jeff Foust, “Harris says National Space Council will Develop ‘comprehensive framework’ for space priorities,” SpaceNews (Nov. 6, 2021).
- 5.
Jeff Foust, “An Aggressive Budget for More Than Just Earth Sciences,” Space Review, (June 1, 2021). Retrieved from https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4186/1
- 6.
Paul Voosen, “NASA Set to Announce Earth System Observatory,” Science, (May 7, 2021), 554–555.
- 7.
Jeff Foust, “NASA brands future Earth science missions as Earth System Observatory,” Space News (May 25, 2021).
- 8.
Josh Willis, correspondence with author, Mar. 22, 2023.
- 9.
Jeff Foust, “NASA and ESA Sign Agreement on Climate Science Cooperation,” SpaceNews (July 14, 2021). Retrieved from https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-esa-sign-agreement-on-climate-science-cooperation/
- 10.
Paul Voosen, “NASA Radar Altimetry Mission to Study Hidden Ocean Swirls,” Science (Dec. 9, 2022), 1032; See also Josh Diner, “SpaceX Launched NASA Satellite to Study World’s Water.” Space.com (Dec. 16, 2022).
- 11.
Pat Brennan, “SWOT Satellite: Bringing Earth ‘s Coastlines into focus,” NASA, Dec. 13, 2022. Retrieved from sealevel.nasa.gov.
- 12.
Nadya Vinogradova and Benjamin Hamlington, “Sea Level Science and Applications Support Coastal Resilience,” EOS, (June 29, 2022).
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Lambright, W.H. (2023). Advancing. In: NASA and the Politics of Climate Research. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40363-7_12
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