THE ASHES OF APOLLO

Why the “America First” Future is Erasing its Past

NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

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.

“The Trump Administration has spent the last year attacking NASA Goddard and its work force and threatening our efforts to explore space, deepen our understanding of Earth, and spur technological advancements that make our economy stronger and nation safer,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. “These reports of closures at Goddard are deeply concerning — I will continue to push back on any actions that impact Goddard’s critical mission.”

New York Times December 31, 2025

Last week, the lights went out at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center library. And no, it wasn’t because a solar flare knocked out the grid. It was because the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) decided that 100,000 books, journals, and irreplaceable technical manuals were taking up too much “valuable floor space” that could be better used for, presumably, a gold-plated boardroom or a very large shredder.

In what is being hailed by the administration as a “triumph of fiscal modernization,” the largest research library in NASA’s history is being dismantled. While NASA spokespeople are busy spinning a tale of “digital-first services,” the reality on the ground is much grimmer. Scientists are reportedly scrambling to hide 1960s Soviet-era rocketry reports in their desk drawers like contraband, hoping to save a slice of human history before the 60-day “review window” closes and the dumpster trucks arrive.

The administration claims this move saves $10 million a year. To put that in perspective, that is roughly the cost of three minutes of a presidential rally or the fuel for a few weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago. For the price of a rounding error in the federal budget, we are “tossing away”—NASA’s words, not mine—the primary source documents of the Space Race.

But let’s be honest: this isn’t about the $10 million. This is about the narrative.

The Goddard library houses tens of thousands of documents that haven’t been digitized. Among them are the granular, messy, and sometimes bruising records of how the Soviet Union—our greatest historical rival—beat the United States into space.

You see, the “America First” doctrine doesn’t really have a chapter for “The Soviets Had a Better Heavy-Lift Rocket in 1961.” In the new, streamlined history being curated for the 2026 budget, America has always been the biggest, the best, and the only one with a flag on the moon. Why keep dusty, non-digitized proof that Yuri Gagarin got there first? Why preserve the technical manuals that show American scientists had to study, learn from, and occasionally fail against foreign competitors?

If you want to “Make America Great Again,” it’s much easier to do if you delete the archives that show we weren’t always “Great” by default—that we actually had to work, sweat, and occasionally come in second place to get there.

By closing Goddard’s library and cutting staff by nearly 40%, the administration isn’t just “trimming the fat.” They are lobotomizing the institutional memory of our greatest scientific agency.

When you destroy the documentation of the Space Race, you aren’t just saving on air conditioning for Building 21. You are ensuring that the future of American science is untethered from reality. If the documents don’t exist, the “America First” version of history becomes the only version.

As Senator Chris Van Hollen noted, this is an attack on our effort to “deepen our understanding of Earth.” But why would you need to understand the Earth when you’re busy rebranding it?

The 60-day countdown has begun. In March, the “unnecessary” books—the ones that tell the true, complicated story of how we reached the stars—will be “tossed.” If you see a scientist at a Maryland bar tonight with a bulky, Russian-labeled binder hidden under their coat, buy them a drink.

They’re currently the only thing standing between our history and the incinerator.

FTS

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