Leading climate change denier U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is forcing NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to prioritize space missions as opposed to Earth based projects such as those confirming climate change.

NASA recently orbited four new satellites to study the Earth's magnetosphere, which is a billion dollar project.

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At a Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space hearing on March 12 that involved Cruz and NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Cruz examined the 2016 presidential budget request for the U.S. space agency. Cruz expressed his doubts over that US$18.6 billion budget for NASA that appears more focused on Earth-based programs than on space exploration and research.

Cruz said that over the last administration, there was a disproportionate increase in federal funds allocated to the Earth science program. This has been at the expense of the other programs such as Exploration and Space Operations, Planetary Science, Heliophysics and Astrophysics that are all rooted in space exploration and should have been the main core mission of NASA.

During the course of the hearing, Cruz also presented a chart that exhibits the lack of funding for space exploration operations and an obvious increase for Earth Science programs by 41 percent from 2009 to 2016. This chart also revealed the funding for space exploration program was reduced by an average of 7.6 percent during the same time.

Although the senator believes Earth Science programs are just as pivotal, NASA should still not prioritize Earth Science over space explortion projects. Cruz compared other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture that have allotted their financial budget and resources in the effort to understand soil conditions. NASA should just stick to space exploration programs as not many U.S. agencies are even allowed to focus on space exploration like NASA.

In NASA's defense, Bolden explained how the reduction of space exploration funding was caused by cutting costs among other space programs. Bolden pointed out NASA projects have even opted to outsource to private spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Boeing to slash costs from rocket launches. Outsourcing will save NASA millions of dollars every year.

Bolden also explains that it's critical to obtain a better understanding about the planet and additional funding has helped uncover many issues about Earth such as climate change. This will also further help scientists uncover more geological and meteorological conditions than ever before.

In response to this, the American Geophysical Union which is made up of 60,000 Earth and space scientists sent a letter to Cruz on March 13. 

TagsTed Cruz Wants NASA to Forget About Climate Change and Stick to Space Exploration, ted cruz senator, US, NASA, ted cruz NASA earth science space exploration