On July 16, 2015, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden (left) and NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman (right) announced an expanded partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NASA designed to better protect America’s working lands, predict and prevent natural disasters, and inspire young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and agriculture.
The signing of the agreement took place at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The center was an appropriate location to kick off this new chapter of collaboration between the agencies, as several previous projects have been conducted that involved USDA and Ames researchers.
NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.