In the last two years, decreasing space research budgets have put unprecedented pressure on core parts of the U.S. civil space program. NASA’s continued emphasis on large flight missions has meant that money needed for support of individual space scientists, their students and the university research infrastructure has been cut to the bone. Thus, a crisis has descended on space and Earth sciences in this nation that is more pervasive and profound in many ways than any faced in past decades.

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Daniel N. Baker is director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Lennard A. Fisk is the Thomas M. Donahue Distinguished Professor of Space Science at the University of Michigan.

Harlan E. Spence is director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire.