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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
In 1983, Carl Sagan Urged NASA to Send a Mission to Saturn and Titan
Long before the Cassini-Hugygens spacecraft launched in 1997 to explore Saturn and Titan, The Planetary Society urged NASA to make the mission a reality.
How the European Space Agency Does Planetary Defense
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.
How NASA's Planetary Defense Budget Grew By More Than 4000% in 10 years
NASA used to spend more on travel for its employees at headquarters than it did on finding dangerous near-Earth asteroids. Now it’s building asteroid-hunting space telescopes. What changed?
Registration Is Now Open for the 2020 Day of Action
Join The Planetary Society and advocate for space in Washington, D.C. this 9 - 10 February 2020.
Your Impact: September Equinox 2019
Your LightSail 2 spacecraft is in space, controlling its orbit solely on the power of sunlight.
Is a $2 Billion Prize for Landing on the Moon a Good Idea?
Though prize incentives can be useful for certain problems, huge cash payouts for human spaceflight are not good policy.
NASA, ESA Officials Outline Latest Mars Sample Return Plans
The current strategy includes the Mars 2020 rover, a lander carrying a rover and ascent vehicle, and an Earth return orbiter.
What the recent budget deal means for NASA
A bigger budgetary pie allows the space agency's budget to grow—for one year at least.
Orion Completes Critical In-Flight Abort Test
The test showed Orion can blast itself away from the Space Launch System if the big rocket fails while attempting to fly to orbit.
Reconstructing the Cost of the One Giant Leap
How much did Project Apollo cost? Planetary Society experts answered that question by revisiting primary sources and reconstructing Apollo's entire cost history from 1960 - 1973.
Your Impact: June Solstice 2019
The first of two new columns rounds up all the ways Society members are making a difference for space.
A Crash Program or Modest Proposal?
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.
Hearing Recap: Keeping Our Sights on Mars
Highlights from the hearing, 'Keeping our Sights on Mars: A Review of NASA's Deep Space Plans' held on May 8th in the House of Representatives.
What Can We Learn from a Failed Return to the Moon?
Thirty years ago, President George H.W. Bush announced an ambitious program to return humans to the Moon. It failed. Today the Trump Administration wants the same thing. Can a failed lunar return effort help this one succeed?
Hearing Recap: NASA’s FY 2020 Budget Request
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.”
T-minus Five Years and Counting
Can NASA really return astronauts to the Moon by 2024?
Amidst Cuts to NASA, Mars Sample Return May Finally Happen
The President's Budget Request for NASA in 2020 would start a Mars Sample Return mission and ramp up efforts to send humans to the Moon. But it would still kick off the first year of a new decade with a half-billion dollar cut to the space agency.
100 Planetary Society Members. 25 States. 1 Day of Action.
Society members from across the United States came to Washington, D.C. on their own dime to advocate for space science and exploration.
NASA just got its best budget in a decade
After months of unrelated political turmoil, multiple stop-gap spending bills, and an unprecedented government shutdown, NASA's 2019 budget was finally signed into law.
NASA Gets a Three Week Reprieve
If ever there was an example of how quickly political winds can shift, look no further than the sudden end to a seemingly endless government shutdown on January 25th.