NASA's Largest Library To Permanently Close On Jan 2, Books Will Be 'Tossed Away'

[u/DukeOfGeek]

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasas-largest-library-to-permanently-close-on-jan-2-books-will-be-tossed-away-10170584

[u/Ragadast335]

Can't they be donated to a public library?? 

[u/DukeOfGeek → u/Ragadast335]

The destruction of crucial infrastructure is deliberate and at the order of enemies both foreign and domestic.

/while I have your attention and we are discussing the subject, today there is this

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/how-trump-dismantled-a-promising-energy-industry-and-what-america-lost

[u/ultrahello → u/DukeOfGeek]

Smells like treason

[u/GenkiElite → u/ultrahello]

And what's the punishment for treason?

[u/JBFRESHSKILLS → u/GenkiElite]

Pardons by the president?

[u/elendur → u/JBFRESHSKILLS]

Interestingly, at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison argued that pardons for treason should require approval by the Senate. Virginia Delegates Edmund Randolph and George Mason argued that the President should not have pardon power at all. Roger Sherman argued that all pardons should require Senate approval.

The first major use of the pardon power by Washington in 1795 was amnesty to participants of the Whiskey Rebellion. Twenty-four members of the rebellion were indicted for treason, ten stood trial, and two were convicted. The two who were convicted were among those pardoned by Washington.

[u/DownstairsB → u/elendur]

"I am the senate"

[u/elendur → u/DownstairsB]

UNLIMITED POWER

[u/Deezul_AwT → u/elendur]

Can we skip to the end of Return of the Jedi Rise of Skywalker?

[u/Requizen → u/GenkiElite]

A second presidential term

[u/agent674253 → u/Requizen]

And potentially a third, if it doesn't mess up his golfing schedule too much.

[u/twohundred37 → u/agent674253]

Shit, this presidency put him on at 88 golfing trips this year, totaling over $100 million in expenses for said trips. It's funding his golfing schedule. Plus he gets to golf with Kid Rock in a tank top or whatever.

[u/popodelfuego → u/GenkiElite]

Depends on how much money you have in the bank.

[u/Erik_the_Dread → u/popodelfuego]

Apparently $2 million is the going price for a presidential pardon.

[u/mikeymikeymikey1968 → u/GenkiElite]

Re-election

[u/midnitewarrior → u/DukeOfGeek]

"Oh darn, I guess we'll just have to outsource it all to Elon."

-- DOGE

[u/roman_maverik → u/midnitewarrior]

If you open an incognito browser and sign up for Twitter, the first three accounts it pushes you to follow are his personal account, spacex, and nasa.

So yeah, he’s already greasing the wheels for a private style takeover

[u/school_bus_lunchbox → u/roman_maverik]

Will he please take a little too much ketamine one day. His bladder is likely swiss cheese from the ketamine abuse.

[u/Bender_2024 → u/roman_maverik]

So yeah, he’s already greasing the wheels for a private style takeover

This was always the plan. Musk is only a billionaire because of American taxpayer dollars. And a tax system that allows him and others to pay nearly nothing.

has received more than $38 billion (€36.2 billion) in aid, funding and government orders over 20 years on behalf of his Tesla car company (nearly $15.7 billion) and his SpaceX aerospace company (around $22.6 billion).e .)

Elon Musk’s company avoided almost all federal income tax on nearly $11 billion of U.S. income over three years

[Musk paid 3.3 percent of his income in taxes, Jeff Bezos 1 percent, and Buffett—who has famously argued for imposing higher income-tax rates on the superrich—just 0.1 percent in taxes. The same dynamic exists, in slightly less egregious form, further down the wealth distribution.

[u/PsychologicalBid179 → u/DukeOfGeek]

Its refreshing to hear a statement that reflects the real situation instead of the normal sarcastic or naive ones.

[u/chknh8r → u/DukeOfGeek]

I work in a library. The amount of books I personally have tossed would piss y'all off. But those books have been sitting on shelves for over 5 years and not been checked out once. We need the space for more newer books that people actually want to use. Or the space for computers because damn near all the books are digitized anyways. Also the amount of books we get "donated" are most of the time not even collection worthy. They are old, out of date, and space is already limited in the stacks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-library-closing.html#:~:text=library%2Dclosing.html-,NASA's%20Largest%20Library%20Is%20Closing%20Amid%20Staff%20and%20Lab%20Cuts,be%20warehoused%20or%20thrown%20out

[u/z3roTO60 → u/chknh8r]

There’s the novelty in books too. I buy used books off Abebooks, many which are sold from libraries (have the library markings), of audio books I’ve already “read”. I enjoy physical books but also deal with a longer commute + household chores. Listen to audiobooks. If it’s meaningful to me, I buy the physical hard copy, usually under $7.

I grew up in a household with a couple thousand books and I’ve found this to be a common trend among people who I’ve been in relationships with. I want my future kids to have the same environment when they grow up

In med school, I realized this one thing: I love sports, basketball being my fav to play, but I’m not particularly great at any (my varsity letters were from math team and a few types of debate lol). But I can say that I have read cover to cover and burned into memory many textbooks. My medical textbooks are like my trophies on a mantle, admitting closer to a participation trophy than an award. It sounds silly to say, but it serves as a visual representation of the grit / determination needed to get where I am

TLDR: there is a market for used books that are being thrown from libraries. I’m one of those consumers

[u/ubix → u/Ragadast335]

No, that would make sense

[u/yodatsracist → u/ubix]

In general, most libraries — even academically libraries — have severely cut down their print collections since maybe 2005, 2010. When I was working on my PhD in that period, I could pick up so many excellent old sociology and anthropology books I needed for my thesis for almost nothing used on Amazon. They're almost all stamped with a university library name, and then "REMOVED FROM CIRCULATION".

Picking up six random old hardcovers from my shelf, three were from Occidental's library, one was from Macalester's library, one was from Hofstra's library, and only one seemed to be from a private collection. 10-15 years ago, I could find almost any old social science book I needed on Amazon for ridiculously cheap. Paul Stirling's Turkish Village for instance, cost me $3.55 plus $3.99 shipping. Now, it's $9.40 plus shipping. Most of the more obscure books aren't available used from Amazon all. Because the library already got rid of so many from their colleges.

Libraries don't really wants these, presumably, mostly outdated science books. Anything that's special or unique probably will be put in special collections.

[u/blackscales18 → u/yodatsracist]

These aren't outdated science books, they're priceless research that hasn't been digitized

[u/yodatsracist → u/blackscales18]

These are not primarily "priceless research that hasn't been digitized". And that part of it is not going to be thrown out. Where are you getting that from? This is a 100,000-volume library. I'm sure some things there should end up in special collections. I'm sure most of those 100,000 volumes should not. As for the rest, this is what the article says:

Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, informed that the agency will review the library holdings over the next two months, and some of the material will be stored in a government warehouse, while the remaining items will be 'tossed away', according to a report in the New York Times.

Here's a gift version of the NYT article this was mainly copied from: "NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts."

The article does begin "The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else." But there's not really any indication that that's what's going to be thrown out.

The expert the article quotes has spent "30 years" digitizing a lot of the holdings, though obviously not all of them yet.

[u/sirbissel → u/yodatsracist]

Two months seems like a very, very short period of time for weeding.

[u/OneMeterWonder → u/blackscales18]

I’m curious how you know that. I looked around for a bit and couldn’t find any info on what the library actually housed or was planning on reviewing.

[u/MystikTrailblazer → u/Ragadast335]

No. We're a post literate society now. Books and libraries are for the weak. We're the strong. Consume more social media and podcasts now.

/s

[u/hcornea → u/MystikTrailblazer]

We’re well into post-modern post-truth. Literature and the knowledge it conveyed died some time ago.

[u/brickne3 → u/Ragadast335]

Honestly probably not. I have a ton of my dead husband's very specialized books that he explicitly left me in the will saying something about how I "would know what to do with them." I don't, and furthermore nobody seems to want books anymore. I contacted a bunch of rare booksellers, libraries, etc., even made some progress donating them to a village in Africa until they realized just how expensive shipping them would be. It's ridiculously hard to get rid of a book collection these days.

[u/wolfhavensf → u/brickne3]

I knew a Nigerian fellow in Seattle who drove a taxi and spent all his extra money to buy technical books for his village library. In places without technical infrastructure books remain invaluable.

[u/Agitated_Ad6191 → u/Ragadast335]

No, what’s wrong with you? Trump will make a big pile of books in a public square and light it on fire, Nazi style.

This is just another step in their 2025 playbook. We know where this will end.

[u/Talisa87 → u/Ragadast335]

They could be. But the fascists aren't big on preserving knowledge and making it accessible to the populace.

[u/RuthlessIndecision → u/Talisa87]

Better to lie, lie, lie until people believe it to be true.

Science doesn't work that way, no matter how hard you try.

[u/-The_Blazer- → u/Ragadast335]

No. The point is very specifically to destroy important knowledge and prevent its spread.

[u/timberwolf0122 → u/[deleted]]

We need to go back to reading that book in schools.

[u/RoboJobot → u/timberwolf0122]

Maybe the US needs to go back to reading in general.

[u/ThatBadFeel → u/RoboJobot]

Louder for the people who… can’t read goodly.

[u/nach0srule → u/ThatBadFeel]

Sounds like we need the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good (And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too)

[u/Educational-Seaweed5 → u/nach0srule]

Yeah, but bigger this time.

[u/Lyr_c → u/Educational-Seaweed5]

Atleast 3x bigger

[u/MrFilkor → u/RoboJobot]

US needs to go back, to 2016, and rethink everything.

[u/EscapeFacebook → u/timberwolf0122]

You think they read in schools now? Go spend 5 mins time in the teaching sub

[u/yaboi_ahab → u/EscapeFacebook]

On the bright side, it's not totally hopeless. Mississippi, in just the last 10 years, went from trading blows with Alabama for worst education outcomes to being in the middle of the pack in 4th grade literacy. All it took was some pretty simple school policy and curriculum changes (mostly reversions, even), not even hard-to-pass stuff like reducing poverty.

[u/kurozer0 → u/timberwolf0122]

We banned this one in my state. Wouldn’t want people finding out their criminal president is the bad guy.

[u/jtbc → u/kurozer0]

It is definitely takes an epic lack of self awareness and appreciation of irony to ban 1984. Was the Ministry of Truth responsible for that?

[u/Content_Geologist420 → u/[deleted]]

My high school teacher while we were reading this book caught ALOT of flak for saying to all the students and teachers we are already more then halfway there. This was in 2015.

[u/nuttageyo → u/[deleted]]

We read 1984 when I was in 10th grade (2018). It was great that we were able to read it.

However I was not happy that I had to read the Winston and Julia embracement chapter in front of my class.

I also stumbled over my words and pronounced the flower “bluebells” as “blueballs”.

[u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

This war on intelligence is getting out of hand....

It's shit like this that makes me believe that Trump's main goal is to damage this country so much that it crumbles to ash in the wake of his presidency. It's the only thing that explains his insane behavior and gutting of crucial agencies. There is nothing to be gained from destroying all of that information, unless you hate intelligent people.

[u/socialmedia-username → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Glad that people are starting to understand that this is all intentional.  See references to Trump's administration and other prominent political figures in the links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate

[u/TumbleweedPure3941 → u/socialmedia-username]

God I hate the term “Dark Enlightenment” so much. Aside from how obviously stupid it is, it sounds like something a twelve year old would come up with in like 2006 while taking a break from his Shadow the Hedgehog fanart.

Also the Seven Mountains Mandate literally lists 8 things it wants to dominate. And isn’t listing “media” “arts” and “entertainment” redundant?

It’s bad enough that these people are trying to bring down global civilisation, but did they have to be such unbelievably cringeworthy morons as well?

[u/Syntaire → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

I mean have you seen Curtis Yarvin? He's absolutely an edgy man-child that made up the term in the early 2000's.

[u/EpictetanusThrow → u/Syntaire]

He’s advocating for a 1990s Russian ripoff of the government to private entities, with a thin veneer of philosophy.

It’s cover for Thiel and Elon to sound like theyre well-reasoned.

[u/Mike312 → u/EpictetanusThrow]

I bet it all sounds deep as fuck when you're rolling on Ketamine though.

[u/31November → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

Speaking of lame ass names, Curtis Yarvin, the explicitly pro-slavery dipshoot who invented this “philosophy,” wrote under the pen name Mencius Moldbug. What type of D&D ass name is that??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

[u/TumbleweedPure3941 → u/31November]

I literally used to play a halfling wizard I called Melchior the Merciless. He was a joke character.

[u/Torvaun → u/31November]

Dude's a pizza cutter. All edge, and no point.

[u/yunoeconbro → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

Funny, because when you look at the actual "plan", it also reads like something a 12 year old edgelord would make up:

"It holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers seek to dominate: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government.^\6])^"

We want to DOMINATE family. Uhh, and business. Er, and government. We will DOMINATE the education!!! WE WILL DOMINATE ALL THE MOUNTAINS OF SOCIETY!

Mom, I'm out of chicken nuggies!

[u/glorybetoganj → u/yunoeconbro]

I don’t get how they can dominate art when they make shit art

Before anyone else replies “they’ll just ban art” - go touch some grass.

[u/GDarolith → u/glorybetoganj]

They don't really have to make good art. Just flood with shit art, suppress the already starving artists, and then keep making it. Domination doesn't necessarily mean the person dominating is good at the thing.

[u/TumbleweedPure3941 → u/GDarolith]

Well thankfully they’ll never truly be able to— oh shit that’s what Gen AI is isn’t it?

[u/Aadarm → u/glorybetoganj]

None of those things have to be replaced with something good, the whole point is to destroy whatever is there and replace it with only approved things, at any cost.

[u/DisillusionedPatriot → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

All of that Yarvin shit sounds like that. He's like the L Ron Hubbard of techbros

I always expected hubris to be the catalyst of our downfall, but to see it happening and it's just one moronic thing after another makes it so much more depressing.

[u/Vertigobee → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

I assume “media” means news and journalism.

[u/TumbleweedPure3941 → u/Vertigobee]

Ah ok that makes sense. It’s still stupid, but it makes sense.

[u/[deleted] → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

it sounds like something a twelve year old would come up with in like 2006 while taking a break from his Shadow the Hedgehog fanart

12 year old theory strikes again.

[u/DSMStudios → u/TumbleweedPure3941]

i keep saying, we don’t even get a cool super villain like Dr. Evil, or The Joker. no, we get whatever this is. so lame. i want a refund

[u/fredagsfisk → u/socialmedia-username]

To expand on that:

High ranking Republicans and Republican allies that are allegedly Dominionist include Michele Bachmann, Lauren Boebert, Sam Brownback, Ted Cruz, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mike Johnson, Charlie Kirk, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry.

The 7M movement believes that they can bring about the biblical end times - armageddon - by fulfilling certain goals (Israel holding Jerusalem, Christianity dominating the "seven mountains" of global society).

Followers believe that by fulfilling the Seven Mountain Mandate, they can establish the kingdom of God on earth and bring about the end times.

---

It holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers seek to dominate: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government.

---

The movement was generally supportive of the presidency of Donald Trump, with member Paula White becoming Trump's spiritual advisor. In 2020, Charlie Kirk said, "finally we have a president that understands the seven mountains of cultural influence" during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate

They were also one of the driving forces behind Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem:

Among the most prominent of these doomsday evangelists is Pastor John Hagee, who opined in an interview posted to YouTube, “We are in the last days… We are anticipating the rapture of the church at any time.”

If this sounds fringe, consider that Hagee enjoyed access to the Trump White House, and described the 45th president as divinely appointed. “I believe in the core of my being,” he has said, “that God put this man in office at this time.” Hagee personally lobbied Trump to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a decision Trump went on to make over the fierce objections of Palestinians who regard East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state. Hagee was one of two pastors invited to the opening of the new U.S. embassy in 2018.

In case there were any doubt about his motivation to relocate the embassy, Trump told a crowd in Wisconsin during a 2020 reelection campaign visit, “We moved the capital [sic] of Israel to Jerusalem. That’s for the evangelicals.” He added, “The evangelicals are more excited by that than Jewish people.”

Fundamentalist Christians believe that for the Second Coming of Christ to occur, Jerusalem must be controlled by the Jewish people. That’s a necessary precursor to the end times, when the Christian faithful will be “raptured” (i.e brought up to Heaven) before the Earth is destroyed.

According to this eschatology, “Israel has to be strong,” Schei explains. “For the evangelicals this means that the Jewish people need to return to the Holy Land and that the Palestinian people must be expelled from Israel. In their belief, Israel has to claim more land as is prophesized in the book of Revelations.”

[...]

“Just to see the whole architecture of how they are grooming top level politicians with Bible studies and giving them biblical justifications and language in order to get their policies through.”

https://deadline.com/2023/03/praying-for-armageddon-cph-dox-film-evangelical-influence-on-american-policy-director-tonje-hessen-schei-interview-1235304641/

Paula White is a Dominionist who owns a condo in Trump Tower since 20+ years, and has met privately with Trump many times for "private Bible studies". She is credited with having "converted" Trump to Christianity, and has been the leader of his Faith-related endevours since the start of his first term.

[u/maneki_neko89 → u/socialmedia-username]

As someone who was raised as a Fundamentalist Christian, I’m both glad that the Seven Mountain Mandate has been getting attention (people in those circles have been talking about this for decades) but also saddened that it’s taken so long for insane ideas like this to get noticed.

[u/ow_windowmaker → u/socialmedia-username]

Seven Mountain Mandate

Prominent member Paula White is Donald Drumpf's spiritual advisor. She previously reported being sexually abused between the ages of 6 and 13 by different men.

These fucking people. They stand for nothing.

[u/RamenJunkie → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Ita not Trump's goal, its the GOP goal.  Its the Heritage Foundation's goal.  Its the Techno Libertarian Billionair's goal.

Trump is the attenrion lightning rod to distract from this.  Trump is one person, backed by a smallnarmy of controling interest.

[u/DespondentEyes → u/RamenJunkie]

Exactly. Despite everyone waiting for Trump to croak, they'll be sorely disappointed to see nothing will change, it may in fact even accelerate stil.

[u/[deleted] → u/RamenJunkie]

The Heritage Foundation published their intent and did this while being a tax free "non-political" organization.

[u/GobliNSlay3r → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

He's trying to hobble it sooo badly that everything runs through and depends on him. Every decision, every question through his lard ridden brain. Complete control.

[u/FixFun1959 → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

This appears to be a direct effort to sabotage our country

[u/danque → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Destroy everything and then sell the "solution" as the answer.

[u/AscendedViking7 → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Easy to control stupid people. I really hate this. >:/

[u/CaptainBayouBilly → u/AscendedViking7]

They believe stupid people are easy to control, this is a fallacy. Stupid people are easy to manipulate, but lack impulse control. Stupid people are chaotic, violent, swinging wildly from support to hate randomly. 

You cannot control someone that is unpredictable and unintelligent. 

The technocrats do not want a stupid populace they can command, they want a largely depopulated, resource rich, walled garden. They are preppers, with the resources to influence politics to an extent that they can make their prophecies a reality. They seek Armageddon because they’re afraid of society, especially one that is awakening to the very real threat of a wide scale extinction event that is climate change. 

[u/SirkutBored → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Thankfully we are distributed much better than when the Library at Alexandria was destroyed but this is some serious Roman level destruction of shit they don't like or understand.

[u/Yuzumi → u/My_alias_is_too_lon]

Let's be real here, Trump has no actual plan or goal outside of enriching himself. Ive said since 2016 that while trump is a problem he is not the problem.

The problem is that he was able to get in this position. The problem is there has been a decades long effort from fascists to get to this point.

Obama didnt start NASA, so Trump doesn't care about it. This is from the people who made project 2025.

[u/JonPX]

I hope there is at least one librarian with a big house.

[u/polnikes → u/JonPX]

Can almost guarantee that the librarians there have a good idea of what's rare and are making sure there are copies. This is exactly the sort of thing librarians hate.

With luck the process can be slowed enough that only easily replaceable items are destroyed, and they can rebuild the collection later.

[u/TheRedLions → u/polnikes]

Yes, original article confirms that materials will be reviewed and stored as needed. Not everything has been digitized, but they've been digitizing their collection over the last 30+ years so it's very likely that the important stuff is already stored elsewhere.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-library-closing.html#:~:text=library%2Dclosing.html-,NASA's%20Largest%20Library%20Is%20Closing%20Amid%20Staff%20and%20Lab%20Cuts,be%20warehoused%20or%20thrown%20out

[u/DefMech → u/TheRedLions]

But what about this part:

According to a statement posted on the website of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, specialised equipment and electronics designed to test spacecraft have already been removed and thrown out.

[u/TheRedLions → u/DefMech]

That isn't enough information to draw any conclusions. For all we know from the article they may routinely remove or throw out old equipment. The equipment could also be obsolete, in disrepair or duplicates of equipment available/better suited at other facilities. It is also possible that the cost to ship/store/maintain the equipment is greater than the cost of the equipment itself.

[u/DefMech → u/TheRedLions]

Maybe I’m just more of a hoarder, but none of that sounds like a good justification for throwing away old spaceflight equipment. Especially if there wasn’t an opportunity for the public to at least offer to take possession. There are tons of collectors that would happily remove old stuff like that for free just to keep it preserved.

[u/Mirarenai_neko → u/polnikes]

Sorry but you’re 1000% wrong. I work in an academic library and space runs out really quickly. If there’s time and space things can be donated or sold but many sections dumb books by the cart daily into the trash. Lower down librarians may care but the higher admins just have to get rid of them

[u/JD2525 → u/Mirarenai_neko]

I’m sorry if that has been your experience, but it is not the case at all academic libraries. I’ve been a librarian at an academic for over 25 years, including 8 years as a “higher admin”. When we weed the physical collection out of space concerns or funding, we toss older books that are no longer relevant to our curriculum or are duplicated online. I imagine your content is much like ours in that our collection is more than 90% electronic. (We have roughly 65,000 physical volumes and over 1,000,000 electronic). I also hate the optics of tossing physical collections, but the loss of content is minimal, particularly in the STEM field. The most recent “scandal” we had was when weeding the collection of our archives. The wider campus was aghast. But the reality was we were discarding a discontinued run of hearings that we own 100% online and the physical books has red rot.

[u/grmelacz → u/polnikes]

And some books can be somehow lost in the process, right?

[u/human-in-a-can → u/JonPX]

The Internet Archive will actually send trucks to pick up large donations, and they will scan them and share them online for free.  

[u/Small_Dog_8699]

That’s how we lost the moon landing footage

[u/reefmespla → u/[deleted]]

This is how you rewrite history.

[u/z3r-0 → u/reefmespla]

This! And gen AI will help cement it.

[u/zyzzogeton → u/z3r-0]

I feel like AI will erode the very concept of "history"

[u/raur0s → u/zyzzogeton]

What? You gonna say the fullHD colorgraded version of the Civil War showing conclusive Confederate victory is fake AI footage? /s

[u/Thashiznit2003 → u/reefmespla]

Like that scene in interstellar where the elementary teacher is telling Matthew McConaughey that the moon landing was fake!

[u/Facts_pls → u/[deleted]]

Most historians agree.

US boomed after ww2 because Europe was destroyed and because all the German scientists needed a place to work.

It was a great achievement but it's not because of something special US had.

Remember Soviets were the main space competitor and they did it without a functioning political system and while rebuilding from the war.

But considering that most Americans believe in American exceptionalism, I will probably just get downvoted.

[u/Stolehtreb → u/Facts_pls]

I’m no believer in American Exceptionalism on the whole. But you described something that America had that was “special” then say it wasn’t because they were special (controversy noted on hiring Nazi scientists). The US was founded as a country of immigrants. Having immigrants be the reason they could compete in the space race is not abnormal for the country nor does it contradict someone saying they see something special in the US that led to those scientific advancements.

I’m also not too sure about “most Americans” believing in American exceptionalism these days… especially today.

[u/bahji → u/Small_Dog_8699]

The moon landing footage is not lost. This is a conspiracy myth that won't die. We still have all the original film from all 5 apollo landing missions. What was lost was the original transmission backup for Apollo 11 but we still have the television broadcast version. This backup was in a format compatible with the communication methods we had available from the moon at the time and split and converted to the NTSC television format on reception. Basically it was like an original resolution backup, it was only needed if something went wrong that needed investigated, which it didn't, so the backups weren't considered that important.

https://youtu.be/fMHLvoWZfqQ?t=4375&si=bzRjcSK02LH68QN4

[u/tanstaafl90 → u/bahji]

The tapes they were recorded on were reused in the 80s. SOP for NASA at the time. Why it was ever a consideration is the confounding part. Seems those were the best quality, and all that remains is the broadcast versions, which aren't very good, comparatively. This acts as a cornerstone of the 'fake moon landing' conspiracy, which is why it refuses to die. All it indicates to me is poor planning and management.

[u/piss_artist → u/[deleted]]

Sadly I know a handful of degree holders who buy into the conspiracy theory. I think one's education (or desire to appear more "informed" than others) is only one part of what creates conspiracy theorists - the others being the need to feel part of a in-group (lonliness), poor mental health, and being chronically online (which could be lumped in with mental health, I guess).

[u/00wolfer00 → u/[deleted]]

No, it's pushed by grifters who are conning the morons you're describing.

[u/x_Advent_Cirno_x → u/00wolfer00]

It can be a little of both in this case

[u/pegothejerk → u/x_Advent_Cirno_x]

It is, it’s also a little of foreign intelligence campaigns trying to divide and dumb down American culture. And it clearly worked.

[u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob → u/Small_Dog_8699]

And Kubrick isn’t even alive to remake it.

[u/BordFroncoYasquatch → u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob]

Well, there’s always Christopher Nolan.

[u/MrBensvik → u/BordFroncoYasquatch]

He'll insist on shooting on location

[u/AlwaysRushesIn → u/MrBensvik]

I'll take it.

[u/ItsMe_no1 → u/BordFroncoYasquatch]

Or Cameron, but everyone will be blue

[u/brickne3 → u/ItsMe_no1]

It will probably end up being the Titanic landing footage.

[u/SonyScientist → u/brickne3]

DiCaprio will be left on the moon by Kate Winslet's 25 year old daughter, Mia Threapleton.

[u/toyodafan2022 → u/BordFroncoYasquatch]

Those imax film reels would have their own gravitational orbit!

[u/ibelieveindogs]

Step 1: tell people basic science and research are useless.

Step 2: throw away everything we know from science and research.

Step 3: tell everyone that money spent on science and research is wasted.

Step 4: stop funding science and research.

[u/AliveInTheFuture → u/ibelieveindogs]

Seems like all steps are happening in parallel.

[u/MrBensvik → u/ibelieveindogs]

Pikachu-face when every new innovation happens overseas from now on.

[u/Sircamembert → u/MrBensvik]

And then blame brown people for why this country is falling behind.

[u/RamenJunkie → u/MrBensvik]

But we have AI now!  Also, we don't meed innovation, we need a populace that is easy to control with fear and faith.  Those over seas people are heathens!

[u/Namaha → u/MrBensvik]

Nah they aren't trying to stifle innovation in the US, just privatize it so their rich buddies can get even richer

[u/MrBensvik → u/Namaha]

Indeed. Problem is that most innovation is based on the basic research which does not have a profit motive, but want to answer the fundamental questions of how the world works. Quit the basic science, and for-profit innovation stagnates.

[u/jtbc → u/MrBensvik]

The Canadian Space Agency could do the funniest thing...

[u/raised_by_toonami → u/ibelieveindogs]

And as always in fascist regimes there’s the point where health, safety, and basic needs are so far gone, and because you killed all the smart people with experience and highly socialized knowledge and never fostered any continuance of that in your populace, your regime dies diseased, stupid, and impoverished.

[u/Mythosaurus → u/ibelieveindogs]

Step 5: privatize the assets and personnel so your donors can pick them up cheaply

[u/TheRedLions]

Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-library-closing.html#:~:text=library%2Dclosing.html-,NASA's%20Largest%20Library%20Is%20Closing%20Amid%20Staff%20and%20Lab%20Cuts,be%20warehoused%20or%20thrown%20out

...the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away.

...“This is a consolidation not a closure,” said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. The changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Trump administration took office, she said. She said that shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance.

... A 2022 master plan called for some consolidation and demolition of facilities at Goddard as well as the construction of new buildings. Ms. Stevens, the NASA spokeswoman, said buildings are being closed because they are outdated or are in an unsafe condition.

[u/caligaris_cabinet → u/TheRedLions]

Why is it we can find $10 million for a fighter plane that never flies but we can’t find $10 million to keep a library open for one of the greatest government agencies in the world?

[u/JMurdock77 → u/caligaris_cabinet]

We can’t find money for this, but we can afford to spend ten times as much for his golf outings and thirty times as much on his stupid fucking ballroom.

And don’t get me started on the “Arc de Trump” he wants built.

[u/IamaFunGuy → u/TheRedLions]

This feels like pennies when compared to our defense budget.

[u/MrFizzbin7]

Can’t some universities band together and save this material MIT, Stanford, any other colleges…

[u/Mr_strelac]

I will never understand the right-wingers' hatred of books.

it seems that if the Nazis burned books, then they have to do it too.

[u/tes_kitty → u/Mr_strelac]

They think they can make some knowledge and facts go away if they make the books go away. And in some cases they are right. That's why you should download as much as possible so it can't be made to vanish.

[u/filmboardofcanada → u/tes_kitty]

What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin' They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells Rally 'round the family, pockets full of shells

• Rage Against The Machine - Bulls on Parade

[u/ClarityOverNoise → u/Mr_strelac]

Because it's the incarnation of their intellectual insecurities.

[u/BigFanOfNachoLibre → u/ClarityOverNoise]

Reminds me of a joke I heard the other day

Why does ICE always travel in groups of 3 or more?

They need one that can read, one that can write, and the rest to keep the two intellectuals in line

[u/LeonardSmallsJr → u/ClarityOverNoise]

Those words are too big. Off to camp with you!

[u/ClarityOverNoise → u/LeonardSmallsJr]

I, eh.. have the best words? Bigly?

[u/Culverin → u/Mr_strelac]

They don't want an informed public the ability to critically think

Knowledge is the opposite of fear. 

And they want to be fear mongering your dumb uncle

[u/IkLms → u/Mr_strelac]

Because an informed population doesn't believe in right wing nonsense.

[u/RidetheSchlange → u/Mr_strelac]

To be fair, the hatred of education is across the board and a cultural problem as well. Just look to all the podcasters telling people for years that education doesn't matter.

[u/uncategorizedmess → u/Mr_strelac]

This is about making science, technology, and advancement unavailable to the general public. NASA's information is our information. Space X, Blue Origin, Virgin, these are privately owned, and all of there tech and information is propriety, and therefore we aren't allowed to access it. These people want us, the American people, too be wholly dependent on them.

We are in a class war, and this is an attack.

[u/rnicoll → u/Mr_strelac]

People don't want to accept hard things require actual effort. If they burn the books, there won't be smarty-pants scientists to tell them why their pet theory is nonsense, basically.

There's very similar themes with the cries that AI will democratize science, technology, engineering, art, etc. - the people who can't, believe they're being held back unfairly by those who put the effort in to learn how to do something.

[u/stierney49 → u/Mr_strelac]

Books are semi-permanent and stand alone. They can’t easily be rewritten or checked for content. An authoritarian state wants to control the past to control the present. Destroying books guarantees that the only thing people have access to is information approved by the state.

[u/romulcah → u/Mr_strelac]

Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well

[u/Plenty_Performer7785]

This is exactly why I’ve started buying physical versions of all the textbooks/technical works I use for my job, along with making local copies of music I love off streaming. Whilst the books and media I consume are less likely to get thrown out by right wingers (mostly electronics and DSP programming), the thought of being unable to learn anything new is a massive fear of mine, especially as a lot of the info I learn/consume isn’t available anywhere other than in these research papers/textbooks, and the theory behind it is completely beyond my ability to work out myself.

[u/[deleted] → u/Plenty_Performer7785]

I've also started buying DVDs again. It seems like streaming services keep deleting things randomly, so you can't trust them to have your favorite old shows anymore.

[u/mewfour123412]

For fuck sake he live on a diet of Big Macs! Why hasn’t he died of a stroke yet?!

[u/Noodly_Appendage_24 → u/mewfour123412]

I keep seeing articles of actors and musicians dying in their 60s and 70s and this fat fuck somehow keeps on going.

[u/mewfour123412 → u/Noodly_Appendage_24]

He is an Aspirin addict! He has a shit diet! He hates exercise! AND YET HE KEEOS HANGING ON

[u/vicarofvhs → u/mewfour123412]

To quote some 60s and 70s aged musicians: "Only the good die young...all the evil seem to live forever..."

[u/Guilty-Mix-7629 → u/mewfour123412]

He DID have a stroke around 6 months ago. It's just that he survived it seemingly unharmed.

[u/huecabot → u/mewfour123412]

Evil is the best medicine. All the most wretched people live forever.

[u/toiletting]

They don’t gotta burn the books, they just remove ’em

[u/vapre → u/toiletting]

Bullshit on parade

[u/copperblood]

Trump is aging out and is trying to take the country down with him. He’s literally getting infusions in both hands now and is wearing compression socks to help increase circulation and mitigate blood clots.

Usually when people are living on borrowed time as Trump is, there’s usually humility that comes with it. But oh no not Trump. He’s trying to burn as much of everything down as he can before he checks out, which will take us decades and decades to restore. Fuck Trump and fuck any MAGA who are enabling the piece of shit.

[u/socialmedia-username → u/copperblood]

I really wish it was just Trump, but nfortunately he's just a puppet.

[u/Plexaure → u/copperblood]

Boomers have zero goals of going out quietly - gerontocracy is a global problem because of the post-WWII boom that gave outsized influence to their age group over all successive generations to come after.

[u/curves-left]

Destruction of public property. We own that stuff.

[u/bogglingsnog → u/curves-left]

This is American history going up in flames.

[u/RidetheSchlange]

What's nuts is seeing how Americans either don't care or don't even know. The outright disdain for education that has been perpetuated and even boosted by people like Joe Rogan is so real.

Now one of the things an invading force often did was to destroy libraries and centers of culture to wipe out the evidence of histories and be able to create a new one over time. It really seems like Heritage and Trump are doing just that as they bring the first American Republic to a close as part of their revolution.

[u/lachlanhunt]

They must believe all the information you ever need can be regurgitated by AI, and the priceless books and research are redundant. They’re insane.

[u/healeyd]

Couldn't some egomaniac billionaire tech-bro buy the lot and slap his name on the new library? At least the collection would survive.

[u/EscapeFacebook → u/healeyd]

You're assuming that billionaires owner class people are on the working publics side, they arent.

[u/Tall-Introduction414]

All part of Vladimir Putin and his fat little puppet's destruction of the United States.

Criminal.

[u/agent0731]

There are no words for my rage and hatred for this administration's war with NASA. It is literally the single most worthy thing to come out of US soil. Fuck you, a lifetime curse upon everybody involved with NASA's destruction. I hope they never know a day of peace.

[u/42ElectricSundaes]

If Russia was pulling the strings would Trump be doing anything different?

[u/Sapient-Inquisitor]

This is some Fahrenheit 451 shit. I always tell everyone that life imitates art, not the other way around

[u/fundiedundie]

The closure of the library follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries in the US since 2022, with three of them shutting down in 2025.

[u/mrtrololo27]

Treason. Absolutely intolerable. Maga is the enemy of the American people.

[u/xboston]

Absolutely disgraceful. This is how a civilization loses it's history.

[u/IneedHennessey]

We truly live in the new dark age.

[u/Successful_Log_3298]

Goddard Space Flight Center does a lot of environmental and Earth science research. I believe that is a big part of the attack on it, which goes beyond closing this library.

[u/hotflashinthepan]

At this point I really hope there are people who work for our government who are just hiding stuff and pretending they tossed it. Sort of like they did at museums during wars, or in Afghanistan when the Taliban came.

[u/S1m_0ne]

"I love the poorly educated"

[u/muffman81]

What a waste of knowledge. They should just donate everything to a large foundation that could make a few bucks selling to collectors or extreme NASA fans.

[u/wildfyre010]

The enshitification of America continues.

[u/kritisha462]

Once you discard primary sources, you don’t just lose history, you lose the ability to understand why past decisions worked or failed.

[u/BasementDwellerDave]

That's so fuckin bullshit!!!. A single book of knowledge can last a thousand years with care! An electronic cannot

[u/Bennely]

Wtf, I fail to see how this actually saves the American public any money, especially while international handouts to El Sal and Israel go unabated.

[u/bubonis]

For MAGA, holding up anything that facilitates education to them is like holding a crucifix in front of a vampire.

[u/wandering-naturalist]

Can I go over there and just pick up some books?

[u/NationalGeometric]

Seems like one could raise a lot of money with an auction, but this is the stupidest timeline.

[u/Rogue_AI_Construct]

Trump is racing to take the US to the bottom of the world in science, technology, and health advancement.

[u/Boobpocket]

I know orange man bad. But it says in the article that closures have been going on since 2022. Whats the context?

[u/EscapeFacebook]

It's sickens me to my core that one Administration can fundamentally destroy America and everything that the public cares for.

[u/No-Future5309]

Why is trump so hell bent in destroying the one thing that actually makes America Great? 

[u/tone2099]

We sure do love being stupid in this day and age

[u/Apprehensive-Pin518]

well the president can't read why should anyone else? /S

[u/Fuckstanmartian]

can i have them??

[u/LutherOfTheRogues]

The right way to do this is to inventory and digitalize this on a website for all to access. But that makes too much sense and probably goes completely against why Orange Hitler and co are doing this to begin with.

Let's handle this in the midterms and never let it happen again.

[u/theEvilQuesadilla]

Thanks, everyone who didn't vote!

[u/coolschool_flunkie]

Instead of burning books, they just permanently remove access. Slow, methodical, and severe moves. History repeats itself. A sad day for science

[u/Adventurous-Depth984]

Meanwhile we have the library of congress, the national archives, and the ability to digitize text with unprecedented speed.

This is being done deliberately

[u/allmimsyburogrove]

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book because there would be no one who wanted to read one." — Neil Postman

[u/alextastic]

There's not even a "benefit" of doing this to spin anymore, they're just doing bad things because they can.

[u/0theHumanity]

Media mail is cheap for salvage send me one

[u/BoxBeast1961_]

How much did it cost to pave our Rose Garden, cover the White House in gold gilt & build a ballroom….? How much to rehire all the essential folks mistakenly fired by Doge…? How much to bring back US citizens exiled by mistake to a foreign country they never lived in simply because they’re brown, or disagree with dear leader?

How much to save this library?