"Amid Fears Of Trump Cutback, NASA Announces Long-Term Climate Mission"

"Could this be push-back from an agency anticipating cuts? Could the Trump administration dismantle GeoCARB?"

"Soon, NASA will be observing plants from a space-bound satellite. That is, unless the Trump administration puts a stop to it.

On Tuesday, the space agency announced its first new earth science mission since the 2016 election: the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory, or GeoCARB. The observatory, which will be led by Berrien Moore of the University of Oklahoma, plans to monitor vegetation stress in the Americas from a distance of about 22,000 miles. It also intends to observe how greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane – are processed in those environments.

Basically, it’s the kind of mission that climate scientists rely on, demonstrating big-picture trends that are nearly impossible to track from Earth. It’s also the kind of mission that Robert S. Walker, space policy advisor to Mr. Trump, has promised to slash. Could this be push-back from an agency anticipating cuts? And could the Trump administration dismantle GeoCARB?"

Joseph Dussault reports for the Christian Science Monitor December 7, 2016.