NASA Is Worth Saving

Summary

Casey Handmer June 2025 Download a printable PDF. NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik and the emerging necessity of a robust, government supported space exploration and technology development program to safeguard US interests in space. NASA embodies the US ideals of optimism and technical excellence. I was privileged to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for four years, among titans of the industry. It is clear, however, that today’s NASA is but a shadow of its former self. I care less about the why of NASA’s long decline, than about whether NASA can be rebuilt once again, and how. I believe NASA is worth saving. I’m accustomed to articulating a minority view point, but in this I’m confident – there are millions of Americans who want NASA to once again embody a golden century of supreme optimism and confidence. A NASA that leads humanity into its infinitely bright future. In this post, I summarize some of NASA’s existential challenges and point the way to a better future. It is partly a response to the recent withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA Administrator, in whose leadership so much of our hope had rested. Jared’s skills and experience are rare but hopefully not unique. NASA, and the American people, deserve a leader equal to its current challenges. Freedom And China It is 1637 days until China takes the Moon. The last page of our passport is a solemn promise that the USA will guarantee freedom as we lead humanity into an infinite and eternal universe. In some desperate corners of the Earth, totalitarian dictatorships still stomp on the potential of a billion hearts, but the future belongs to freedom, under a flag with thirteen stripes and infinite stars. In 1969, this father and son watched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins fly their thunderous Saturn V to the Moon, definitively establishing the primacy of western democracy and market-based economics in the cold war. The son saw a world opening, one which cared abo...