NASA's varied missions worthy of full budget support

While it is understandable that Congress should probe NASA's long-range goals and the ultimate destinations in the human spaceflight program [Nation Digest, Feb. 25], the agency's current and potential accomplishments should not be overlooked:

-- The Kepler spacecraft, launched a year ago, is just beginning to return data of stunning proportions on planets around other stars.

-- The Hubble Space Telescope, successfully serviced by a shuttle mission last year, is providing astronomers with views of the universe as it was shortly after the Big Bang.

-- NASA's Earth Science program, laid out in the fiscal 2011 budget, will provide essential data for managing Earth's resources in the face of climate change.

-- The just-launched Solar Dynamics Observatory will provide unprecedented views of the sun's surface and atmosphere.

-- A flotilla of 11 NASA planetary probes will study Mars, Jupiter and its moon Europa, and Pluto. The probes also will provide an inventory of asteroids that might pose threats to Earth.

The goals of NASA's space science program are unequivocal and far-reaching. These missions rewrite textbooks regularly. NASA deserves great credit for its sustained commitment to space science. While there are a handful of celestial bodies accessible to human visitation, our scientific horizons are limitless. NASA's budget request for fiscal 2011 should be strongly supported.

William S. Smith Jr., Washington

The writer is president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.