The Trump administration reportedly wants to cancel a collection of science missions at NASA. One, whose development and operation is based at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama appears to be one rallying point for NASA workers planning on staging a protest over federal budget cuts. The demonstration is set to take place on what’s known as “Moon Day” on July 20th, when the agency celebrates the landing astronauts on the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969.
The Marshall science project, at issue, is known as the as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna or “LISA” mission. The collaborative spaceflight between the United States and The European Space Agency, would position three spacecraft, about a million miles apart, to form an antenna to detect incoming gravity waves. Proponents say LISA could uncover groundbreaking data on how gravity is formed. Scientists think gravity is created by bodies in space, like planets and stars, which distort the “fabric” of space around them.
The White House zeroed out the budget on LISA in its upcoming spending plan, which threatens cancellation of the $2 billion joint mission with the Europeans. Workers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland say they’re planning on a day of protests to oppose the Administration’s actions, which critics say chips away at NASA’s mission science and exploration.
The Space Agency says it’s aware of the planned protests, but says it’s not affiliated with the effort.
