Abstract
In the 2001–2006 period Asrar’s situation deteriorated. While Asrar got sea-level rise satellites up, along with the three larger satellites that had emerged from the EOS downsizing, he had serious funding problems assuring future missions. Also, Goldin sought to shift EOS climate follow-ons to NOAA and its huge weather satellite system, NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System). The Jason-2 wide-swath technology failed to develop. James Hansen sounded the alarm on climate change and criticized scientists for “reticence,” especially about sea-level rise. When NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe reorganized Earth Sciences under a Science Directorate, Asrar’s science constituency saw his influence falling. O’Keefe’s successor, Michael (Mike) Griffin, seemed to question whether NASA should even do climate change work. Outside NASA, scientists revolted and got a National Academy of Sciences National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey underway lest the Earth Science program “collapse” in their word.
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Notes
- 1.
“Finally Some Good News,” SpaceNews (Dec. 17, 2001).
- 2.
“NASA to Launch Jason 1, Timed Earth Science Satellites,” Aerospace Daily, Nov. 21, 2001.
- 3.
James Hansen, “Scientific Reticence and Sea-Level Rise,” Environmental Research Letters (May, 2007).
- 4.
Jay Zwally, interview by author, Sept. 28, 2021.
- 5.
James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren (NY: Bloomsbury, 2009), 77–79.
- 6.
Ghassem Asrar, interview by author, Dec. 14, 2020.
- 7.
Tony Reichhardt, “Earth Science Loses Autonomy as NASA Switches Focus to the Moon,” Nature, (July 1, 2004), 430, 3. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1038/430003a
- 8.
Ghassem Asrar, interview by author, Dec. 14, 2020.
- 9.
Conrad Lautenbacher, Oral History, EOS Collection, NASA: History of Meteorology, Atmosphere, and Ocean Science from Space in France and Europe by its Actors Ed. Fellous, Jean-Lewis., (Paris, France: Institut Francais d’Histoire de l’Espace, forthcoming).
- 10.
W. Henry Lambright, Launching a New Mission: Michael Griffin and NASA’s Return to the Moon (Washington, DC: BM, 2009).
- 11.
National Research Council, Earth Science and Applications from Space: Urgent Needs and Opportunities to Serve the Nation, Interim Report, (Washington, DC: NAS, 2005).
- 12.
Berrien Moore, interview by Rebecca Wright, Oral History, EOS Collection, NASA, Apr. 4, 2011.
- 13.
Peter B. de Selding, “Data Continuity May Be Affected By Delays in Jason-2 Development,” Space News (May 30, 2005), 1.
- 14.
Ghassem Asrar, interview by author, Dec. 14, 2020.
- 15.
Mark Bowen, Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming (NY: Dutton, 2008), 128.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Eric Lindstrom, interview by author, Aug. 28, 2020.
- 18.
Jeremy Singer, “NPOESS Restructuring Plan Trims Satellite Capabilities,” Space News (June 12, 2006), 6.
- 19.
Jeremy Singer and Brian Berger, “NPOESS Loses Research Luster,” Space News (June 12, 2006), 6.
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Lambright, W.H. (2023). “At Risk of Collapse”. 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_7
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