Federal Entities Rally in Support of NEO Surveyor Mission

In a year when little else went according to plan in DC, the University of Arizona’s Near Earth Object Surveyor Mission led by PI, Dr. Amy Mainzer stood out from the rest of the chaos and experienced uniform support from the Biden Administration, NASA, and Congress. The mission is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. If you’re thinking an asteroid colliding with Earth is literally the last thing we need these days, you’ll understand why the support came in as swiftly as it did. 2021 started with UA Federal Relations’ meeting with the White House’s Office of Management & Budget to ensure that the Administration would both support and advocate for planetary defense in their space portfolio. FR also sought advocacy partnerships with the Planetary Society and the broader membership of the Coalition of Aerospace & Science, comprising university, association and space industry partners. Senator Sinema has long championed the mission and she and her staff ensured robust support was included in authorization bill language coming out of the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this year. Senator Kelly, newly minted as a US Senator but old-hat at all things relating to space, was a welcome addition to UA’s advocacy efforts and also championed the appropriations requests made for the mission, which is scheduled to launch in early 2026. While the appropriations process for fiscal year 2022 is still ongoing, the full funding amount for NEO Surveyor has been provided in both House and draft Senate bills, along with language directing NASA to provide full funding for the mission to ensure a 2026 launch moving forward. This was no small feat considering that NASA’s budget has mostly only seen real growth as relates to the ARTEMIS mission and the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate, which aligns with the White House’s goals for climate research. Federal Relations is now working with Dr. Mainzer to look ahead to fiscal year 2023 to keep the momentum going!