This story was originally published in our Mar/Apr 2023 issue. Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.
In 1995, NASA was strapped for cash — and the search for life beyond Earth looked like it could be in trouble.
Years of steep cuts had reduced the space agency’s five-year budget plan by just over 30 percent. Interest in exobiology — the study of the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe — had been drying up for decades. After the 1976 Viking lander’s life-seeking experiment on Mars came up empty, NASA cut down on Mars missions. Congress canceled NASA’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program in 1993, after less than a year of operation. And in 1995, the Clinton administration called for more than $5 billion in additional reductions to NASA funding before the new millennium.
