How we are trying to save human space flight - Save NASA!

Dear Media Network,

"If your organization gathers 22,000 signatures on its petition, a summary of the petition, the cause, and the organization will be sitting on the desk of President Obama the morning after the petition is submitted to him. ... We want your organization to try and get as many other colleges and students involved as possible." This is a summary of a conversation I had with a few staff members in Senator Session’s office which describe just how we really can make an impact in the human space exploration debate and save our country’s human space exploration program. Save NASA!’s new organization goal – have President Obama acknowledge our organization, our purpose, and our cause by November of 2010, and with the help of the media, we will achieve this goal.

Our organization has been doing a lot of work in order to make an impact on Congress’s upcoming decision which decides the future of human space flight in our country, and we have also had meetings on Capitol Hill and in the Capitol Building which will be discussed more in depth later in this email. Like millions of others, we feel that the plan which President Obama has laid out for the future of human space exploration is vague, unorganized, and lacks vision. Due to this, we have been heavily involved in impacting Congress’s decision since the announcement of the proposal in January of 2010. We have created a petition, and we have a Facebook group, Save NASA!, which to date, has over 22,000 members.

In light of the news, we quickly organized students and put together a “Campus-Wide Presentation” at our school. At the presentation, we spoke to students, faculty and staff about the situation with our country’s human space exploration program and we explained how if all people in the room work together, we CAN impact Congress’s decision. So far, this theory has proven correct. We held a stand in our school’s cafeteria or “Student Center” for two weeks straight. The purpose of the stand was to encourage students to write to their members of Congress but to also encourage students to sign our organization’s petition which has been read by hundreds of people. To date, our organization’s petition has gained 723 signatures. There are 248 signatures of students, 6 signatures of professors and teachers, 1 signatures of employees of NASA or their partners, and 472 other signatures. There are 263 paper signatures and 460 digital signatures. 62 messages enclosed in Section F of our petition have been sent to Congress on behalf of our membership. These messages are not letters mailed out but messages to Congress enclosed on our petition.

To recap additional things our organization has done for the cause, on March 19, 2010, I, Brian Cleaver, Save NASA! vice president, visited the Today Show and stood in the audience where I held a sign stating “Save NASA! … At Embry-Riddle.” In that instant, I advertised our cause and our goal to an audience of millions. More information about any of these events is available on our blog at http://www.SaveNASA.us/blog. On April 4, 2010, we organized a “Roadside Awareness Rally” at a busy intersection nearby our college in Daytona Beach, Florida. At the rally, we held signs to raise awareness of the situation to hundreds of people passing by. We received an enormous amount of positive feedback from people driving by and from the media. That night, we appeared on FOX 35 News before an audience of thousands across the central and eastern Florida region. The following day, our organization appeared on the cover of the Daytona Beach’s newspaper, News-Journal. Furthermore, we had a Japanese news crew on the scene to video record the event. They were there with special passes to document the launch of the shuttle which was taking place the following day. However, we have not been able to locate that news article. I do request that you look at our blog for additional information about the rally.

On April 10, 2010, we encouraged our worldwide membership to take to the streets and hold signs stating “Save NASA!” along with the organization logo. One member who did this was from Salta, Argentina. This photo is available on our blog as well. On April 11, 2010, we attended the Save Space rally in Cocoa Beach, Florida. At the rally, we stood with hundreds of Kennedy Space Center workers and other workers as we said in one voice, “Save Space.” We were able to meet various astronauts as well as Representative Bill Posey where we told him all about what we are doing to help the cause. More information is available on our blog. On April 15, 2010, President Obama visited Kennedy Space Center and delivered his speech regarding the future of human space flight. Four of our members visited Kennedy Space Center and outside its gates, we rallied against the Obama Administration’s views on human space exploration. The speech was taking place in the middle of the day which reduced the amount of participants.

On April 23, 2010, our organization faxed our petition and a cover letter to ALL 540 members of Congress. In the cover letter, we described what our organization has done and what we feel is right for our country. We also made our primary message clear which is, to quote the first sentence of our petition, “The dreams, the hopes, the ambitions, and the aspirations of us, the students of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and other colleges across the country, are on the verge of complete destruction.” We raised the funds to complete the faxing very easily from our membership. The total cost of the project was about $270. More information is available on our blog.

On May 13, 2010, I, Brian Cleaver, Save NASA! vice president, and Mike Mezzettone, Save NASA! member, visited Washington DC where we met with various people regarding the Save NASA! cause. We met with the people from the budget committee in the House and Senate. As proof of our visit, their business cards are available on our blog. These people include:
 House Budget Committee
• Jim Herz
o Republican Staff
o Position: Budget Analyst & Budget Review
 Function 250: General Science, Space and Technology
 Function 270: Energy
 Function 300: Natural Resources and Environment
• Alison Mitchell
o Democratic Staff
o Position: Unknown
 Senate Budget Committee
• Gregory McNeal
o Republican Staff
o Position: Science and Technology Analyst
• Robyn Hiestand
o Democratic Staff
o Position: Education, International, Appropriations Issues
 Senator LeMihux’s office
• Michael Zehr
o Legislative Director
 Senator Bill Nelson’s office
• Yariv Pierce
o Legislative Correspondent


Due to advice given to us by various people we met with, we decided to plan another trip to return to Washington DC. Due to me living in New Jersey and living nearby Washington DC, I was the only person able to attend this second trip. This trip was very successful. The first meeting we had was in the United States Capitol Building in the actual meeting room of the House Committee on Appropriations. During the meeting, I spoke to Dixon Butler, clerk and scientific advisor for the committee. I discussed the importance of human space flight in relation to the Appropriation Committee, and I also went over how President Obama has repeatedly put human space exploration as a dangerously low priority. In return, he explained the committee’s views on the situation and the positive end of the proposed plan. I had additional meetings with various people as well which are outlined below. Their business cards are also available on our blog.

 House Appropriations Committee staff member
• Dixon Butler
o Former chief scientist for GLOBE
o Currently science advisor and clerk for the committee
o Meeting was held in the House Committee on Appropriations meeting room in the Capitol Building
 Senator David Vitter’s office
• Jason Stewart
o Legislative Correspondent
 Senator Jeff Sessions’ office
• Sandra Luff
o National Security Advisor
• Brent Breining
o Defense Legislative Fellow

Furthermore, our petition is being hosted at three colleges in the United States. These colleges are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida led by Sam Patel and Brian Cleaver, Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey led by Alycyne Fumosa, and Star Career Academy in Bricktown, New Jersey led by Stephanie Friday. At the strong recommendation of members of staff for Senator Sessions, we are also working on outreaching to thousands of colleges across the United States so that come September, we can have a large student led response go into effect. Congress is voting in November regarding its decision for human space flight and we need to make an impact on that decision in order to ensure the success of our country’s human space exploration program for the generations to come.

Over the summer, our membership will be working on outreaching to other colleges and getting them involved in the cause as well. Our primary goal will be to get them to join what we are doing or start something similar to what we are doing. We are working at encouraging them to write letters to their members’ of Congress as well. Another goal we have is to get as many signatures on our petition as possible. Standing united and having signatures on one document will show our membership’s strength in numbers, and we will also be able publically prove our goal.

We are asking that you help us achieve our goal of impacting Congress’s upcoming decision by discussing us in your media outlet. We have been doing a lot of work to outreach to Congress and we know that the media has far more the ability to outreach to Congress than we can do. With your help, we will be able to get Congress to realize the importance of human space exploration to our organization, and we will be able to outreach to thousands of colleges across the United States so we can organize students with shared views, so as one united body, we will all finally impact Congress’s decision.

We would appreciate it if you would read through our blog at http://www.SaveNASA.us/blog which includes additional information about our organization and our five school newspaper articles. A press release about our organization is enclosed and is also available at http://savenasa.us/files/Save%20NASA!%2 ... elease.pdf. Also, please visit our petition at http://www.SaveNASA.us/petition to read our petition and facts about our petition. You can also download a copy of the petition which includes all paper and digital signatures by visiting http://savenasa.us/files/Save%20NASA!%20Petition.pdf. A copy of this document is enclosed.

Thank you for your much appreciated time.

Brian Cleaver
Vice President of Save NASA! http://www.SaveNASA.us

The NASA COTS program has demonstrated the power of what can be accomplished when you combine private sector responsiveness and ingenuity with the guidance, support and insight of the US government. For less than the cost of the Ares I mobile service tower, SpaceX has developed all the flight hardware for the Falcon 9 orbital rocket, Dragon spacecraft, as well as three launch sites

Hey everyone. I recommend that you (re)read our petition. We endorse the Senate's proposed plans with the exception that we feel that going the moon and then Mars is a better alternative than going to an asteroid and then Mars.

As far as government control, the organization name "Save NASA!" can at times be misleading. We are dedicated to primarily saving "NASA" and therefore saving human space flight.

We feel that a government controlled human space exploration program which is affiliated with private industries can produce more benefits. Being that the Senate is working on doing just that, it seems that they may be taking a direction we feel is most beneficial.

We have members who do work for private industries such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and others. So what we are primarily working on doing now, is getting colleges, students, and other people involved with writing to their members of Congress to endorse the Senate committee's proposed plans with the exception of the cancellation of the plans to return to the moon.

Again, I recommend that you (re)read our petition. Let me know if you have anything to add.

I am open for a debate.