Casey Dreier
Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society. Host of Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition. planetary.org
- New Space Policy Edition episode on NASA authorization bills. Oft' overlooked, but potentially potent legislative vehicles that define the program of record for the U.S. space program: www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...
- Reposted by Casey Dreier
After 15 years heading The Planetary Society, Bill Nye "The Science Guy" is transitioning from CEO to a new role as Chief Ambassador as well as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors. Current COO Jennifer Vaughn will be the new CEO as of Feb. 17. www.planetary.org/press-releas... - Statement on the passage of HR 6938, which includes funding for NASA in FY 2026: www.planetary.org/press-releas...
- New Space Policy Ed. podcast! Marcia Smith, founder and editor of Space Policy Online, joined me a year after her last appearance to assess our initial predictions for the Trump II-era of NASA, what surprised us in 2025, and what she's looking for in 2026: www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...
- Or listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/lv/podcast/s...
- Even more promising news regarding our efforts to Save NASA Science today. As a reminder, we went all out in the last year to stop these cuts:
- Very good news for NASA Science in the compromise 2026 funding bill released by Congress today:
- The Planetary Society held nothing back in our efforts to Save NASA Science this year. The results are extraordinary, and we will not slow down next year. Read more in our 2025 Impact Report: planetary.org/about/our-im...
- Big updates to the NASA Science Spending Dashboard: - added FY 2025 spending data - improved mobile/desktop UI - new state/district-level economic impact maps - AI-generated pain-language summaries of top award activities Check it out: dashboards.planetary.org/nasa-science/
- I was delighted (and, frankly, surprised!) to receive SpaceNews’ 2025 Icon Award for Individual Achievement for my work tracking NASA’s contract cancellations and economic impacts of potential budget cuts. Thanks to the members and supporters of The Planetary Society who make this possible!
- It inspired me to refresh the UI of the cancellations dashboard, still maintained with weekly data updates: dashboards.planetary.org/cancellations/
- This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for The Planetary Society’s members and supporters who make this organization possible—and enable this unique and rewarding career.
- Data update! Our NASA Planetary Science historical budget dataset now includes all values for the FY 2026 request and final FY 2024 expenditures. Includes annual funding for every NASA planetary mission, helpful programmatic breakdowns, more: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
- The Planetary Society and members of the Save NASA Science coalition have released a statement congratulating Jared Isaacman on his re-nomination for NASA Administrator: www.planetary.org/press-releas...
- Reposted by Casey Dreier🚨 NASA scientists warn: critical equipment at Goddard Space Flight Center could be discarded during the shutdown, jeopardizing decades of Earth & space science missions. 📢 Act now: agu.quorum.us/campaign/146... #sciencepolicy #saveNASA
- A new Space Policy Edition episode today! Guest Lou Friedman argues that the recent announcement of a potential biosignature collected by Perseverance should reignite our commitment to Mars Sample Return,. www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...
- Watch Bill Nye and me "take over" the latest episode of StarTalk Radio, now on YouTube. We're talking, of course, about the need to #SaveNASAScience from the extreme budget cuts in FY 2026: youtu.be/g9T6udCp-RY?...
- I'm very excited to announce `usaspending-orm` a new Python library to ease access to data from the USASpending API. Available now on PyPI and GitHub. Repo link in thread.
- This library provides a straightforward interface inspired by ActiveRecord/SQLAlchemy, built-in caching and rate limiting, proper data typing, and a bevy of helper methods to reduce friction and facilitate rapid development and data acquisition.
- We've been using this library internally at The Planetary Society for our budgetary data analysis, NASA contracts tracking, spending charts, and economic impact modeling for months now. I'm excited pleased to share it more widely, hoping it will inspire others to engage with this unique dataset.
- Here is the link to the GitHub repository: github.com/planetary-so...
- Any new entrant to provide a human lunar landing system for Artemis would have to pull off a successful development effort within 5 years — a feat last accomplished for crewed spacecraft by project Gemini in 1965:
- I really enjoyed talking to Nayeema Raza on her podcast, "Smart Girl, Dumb Questions". We discussed the civil religion of spaceflight, my "conversion" to space advocacy, and the current cuts facing NASA. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=373D...
- A deeper reflection on our recent Day of Action, written by my colleague Jack Kiraly, on why we did it and where we go from here: www.planetary.org/articles/sec...
- An initial recap of a wildly successful joint Day of Action: www.planetary.org/articles/sav...
- Got to talk about our joint efforts to #SaveNASAScience during today’s Day of Action on ABC News:
- You can help: planetary.org/dayofaction
- Today is our Save NASA Science Day of Action! You can take actions online to support the nearly 300 registered participants on the ground with me here in the D.C. planetary.org/dayofaction
- The government may be shut down, but that won't stop our Save NASA Science Day of Action. Nearly 300 advocates are joining me here in D.C. on Monday to #SaveNASAScience More: planetary.org/dayofaction
- Maxwell Zhu joined me on this month's Space Policy Edition podcast to discuss our recent work exploring the rapid expansion of China's space science program. Listen here: www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...
- Reposted by Casey Dreier“It would require turning off 20 space missions in space now that are returning good science. Literally just turning them off and letting them tumble into the darkness.” @caseydreier.bsky.social at @planetarysociety.bsky.social warns what could happen if proposed NASA science cuts take place.
- With our new tool, we can see that NASA's MAVEN project — marked for termination next year — has received similar funding levels in 2025 as it did in 2024. A good sign for the project. More: www.planetary.org/mission-spen...
- Just published the **Mission Spending Tracker**, which analyzes and compares *monthly* expenditures for threatened NASA science missions. A great way to check for premature spending impacts on missions proposed for termination: www.planetary.org/mission-spen...
- [BREAKING] The Planetary Society and 14 partner organizations released a joint letter calling for explicit NASA science protections in Congress's stopgap spending bill. Read it here: www.planetary.org/press-releas...
- This builds upon a the bipartisan congressional letter released yesterday by Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA) and Don Bacon (R-NE): chu.house.gov/media-center...
- Reposted by Casey DreierJUST IN! Congress is considering a stopgap bill to keep the government open through Nov. 20. OMB is planning to cut billions from NASA during this, risking paid-for missions and thousands of jobs. Tell Congress to protect NASA science and prevent these cuts: www.planetary.org/advocacy-act...
- In my latest piece for The Planetary Report, I argue that we’ve largely lost the rhetorical ability to defend the unquantifiable values of space exploration—beauty, curiosity, discovery—in the face of an unrelenting focus on utilitarian pragmatism. www.planetary.org/articles/a-c...
- As NASA faces unprecedented cuts to its science programs, we need to reframe the question from ‘What can we take from the Cosmos?’ to ‘What can the Cosmos give us if we bother to look?’
- [DATA UPDATE]: The rate of new grants at NASA increased in August, but the agency is still on track to award nearly 20% fewer grants in 2025 vs 2024:
- Credit to Sean Duffy today for showing up today and getting excited about this potential biosignature discovery. He wasn't involved in this budget process, and this is an great moment to engage and build his excitement for NASA science. Huge opportunity for science community!
- Here's what I hope to see answered in today's Mars discovery announcement: - Perseverance is facing a 23% budget cut next year — will this be reconsidered? - Will this reignite the effort to pursue MSR? - If not, are humans expected to return these samples? When? Can humans land at Jezero?
- - If MSR is considered to be too expensive, why would sending humans be the preferred option? Will it cost less? - China has plans to launch their Mars Sample Return in 2028 — the budget cancels America's MSR program — are we admitting that we can't keep pace at Mars?
- - The FY 2026 budget also cancels two Mars orbiters that provide critical data relay services for Perseverance: MAVEN and Mars Odyssey. Does that hinder future operations?
- I'm very excited to welcome Ari Koeppel as our new (and first!) AAAS Policy Fellow. He will join us in D.C. to assist in our outreach and space policy efforts during this critical time. And a huge THANK YOU to our members who enabled this new program. Learn more: www.planetary.org/articles/int...
- This will be an exciting announcement. But Perseverance is facing a 23% budget cut to operations in FY 2026 that will directly impact the ability to make more discoveries like this going forward. www.nasa.gov/news-release...
- The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer is my guest on this month’s Space Policy Edition podcast. We discuss his feature article, “How NASA Engineered its Own Decline”, and much more. Don’t miss this one! www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...
- If our elected leaders truly believe we're in a new space race with China, then we cannot afford to abandon space science. Read the NEW OP-ED by me and Maxwell Zhu today in Payload Space: payloadspace.com/op-ed-space-...
- NASA's Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) website has been down for at least a week now — has anyone heard anything about why that may be the case? nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
- Great piece on our joint Save NASA Science Day of Action in today's Polaris newsletter! Still time to register at planetary.org/dayofaction payloadspace.com/organization...
- New analysis: NASA is awarding new grants at a significantly lower rate in 2025 than in prior years:
- This is primarily due to a severe reduction in grant awards between Jan - Apr. The rate has improved in recent months, and prior years have seen an uptick in grant awards in the final months of the fiscal year, so it's possible it may catch up.
- The average grant award is a bit higher, so the cumulative value of grant awards are tracking more closely to the average, but are still lower.
