Now, I’m no Journalism Professor, but I believe the goal of good journalism is to inform and educate the reader. Will the reader walk away from this article with a better understanding of NASA’s structure and how it sets its goals? Will a reader better understand the purpose and existence of NASA as a citizen and taxpayer? Does the article serve them with an accurate portrayal of reality? The answer to all of these is a resounding no.

Seife’s logic is fuzzy and his solutions non-existent. He wraps his screed in a veneer of respectability by saying that he wants to have a conversation about why we have humans exploring space, but the tone of his writing and the quality of his arguments would barely pass muster in the comment threads on space policy forums. After reading this article, I have no idea what Seife wants NASA to do, what he wants us to think, or what his solution would be, beyond that “NASA must adapt or die.”

Goodness, how profound.

If you want to read a piece that is truly thought-provoking, well-written, and educational for the reader regarding the future challenges to NASA, check out the excellent “Destination Unknown” series by Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post.

Below you’ll find a few big picture things that Seife misrepresents, ignores, or grossly simplifies in an attempt to preserve the pretense of a consistent argument in his screed.

1. NASA is not some centralized, shadowy cabal

Seife’s article adopts a similar point-of-view commonly found in Moon-landing deniers, UFO crackpots, and other space conspiracy theorists: that NASA is some top-down cabal with shadowy, decades-long agendas that it imposes onto the government and to its thousands of employees. Any employee or scientist that has ever worked with or for NASA can tell you how far this is from the truth. (Side note: did Seife actually talk to any?)

Seife does not understand (or did not want to explain) that NASA is more of a loosely organized mix of field centers, political appointees, civil servants and contractors. There are comparatively few “NASA Scientists” and many “scientists supported by NASA grant money” that actually work for universities and research institutes and can do and say anything they damn well please (particularly if they’re tenured). NASA’s leadership changes every 4 - 8 years (with a few exceptions) as Presidents change, meaning that the political motives and top-level decision makers vary from decade to decade.

If you were a reader just learning about NASA policy for the first time, would you understand this from his article? Or would you come out of it more uninformed than you were originally?

2. NASA’s Goals Are Defined By the White House and Congress, with limited input from NASA

NASA is part of the executive branch. Anything NASA wants to do, policy-wise, must be approved by the White House AND (eventually) by Congress via their NASA Authorization Acts and funding bills. Congress also gets to appropriate funding for projects they like, but NASA doesn’t need, like the $350 million structure built in Mississippi for the now-defunct Constellation program. Even though it's a criminal waste of resources, I don’t blame NASA for building this, because they had to by law.

The process to determine NASA’s policy on human spaceflight is a complex, years-long effort that takes into account scientists, politicians, and the aerospace industry, among others. In fact, the highly-respected National Research Council is working on this subject right now. They just had a meeting on February 4th, two days before this article was published. They also had an open call for public input. Strangely enough, I didn’t see Seife’s submission in the list of public submissions, which is surprising because he seems to care about this topic so dearly.

But again, if you were reading Seife’s article, would you know that the NRC was working on the problem of human spaceflight goals? No, you wouldn’t.

Over the years, NASA has seen many reports which provide a clear vision for human spaceflight. There was George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. There was George H.W. Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative. Reagan had Pioneering the Space Frontier. Spiro Agnew chaired a space policy commission that recommended the Space Shuttle and a space station. NASA has no shortage of grand ideas for humans in space.

But NASA doesn’t get to decide to pursue these grand ideas. Top NASA officials can argue, cajole, and plead, but only Congress and the White House can truly allow NASA to pursue a goal. And the common thread for all human spaceflight over the past forty years is that the United States doesn’t want to pay to do so.

3. NASA has clearly-defined goals for its science program

Seife simultaneously dismisses NASA’s science programs while blaming them for impeaching the agency’s good name. He mentions major issues in the human spaceflight program, which are legitimate, and, as I’ve noted above, currently the topic of intense discussion throughout all levels of government and the public. But he also neglects to mention anywhere in his article that NASA’s science programs all have clear, achievable goals, that are broadly accepted by the scientific and political communities. There are reports called Decadal Surveys which represent the official consensus from scientific community about the goals for astrophysics, planetary science, heliophysics, and Earth science. They are created every decade, usually over the course of some 18 months. They are highly-regarded by Congress and NASA, though not always implemented exactly as written.

4. NASA is not just human spaceflight

He obviously knows this, since he makes distinctions between the two, but when it’s convenient, he lumps them all together as “NASA.” He rails on and on about the lack of human spaceflight goals, and then uses that to impeach all of NASA. Human spaceflight is the largest part of NASA, but about 28% of NASA’s budget goes to space science. Another, smaller chunk goes to Aeronautics research, technology development, management of NASA field centers, etc. NASA is actively creating new industries for human and cargo launch capabilities. NASA does a whole lot of stuff, which is why it’s hard to pursue big human spaceflight goals given the current level of funding.

5. Seife uses rhetorical tricks and cheap jabs to manipulate the reader

Sure, every writer does this, but Seife’s are particularly manipulative, and uses them to obscure the actual facts in these cases. For example, the section about the Allan Hills martian meteorite, which featured the tantalizing (and ultimately non-biological) formation that looked like fossilized bacteria: