In recent years, NASA officials have spoken up frequently in defense of the theory that human activity is adding too much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and is dangerously elevating the Earth's temperatures.
But that belief is not universal in the nation or even within NASA. That's why a large group of former astronauts and Johnson Space Center officials are pleading with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to stop presenting an unproven contention as settled science.
"The global-warming hypothesis has never been proved ... look at the data," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told WND.
Cunningham says the space agency has no business wading into a politically charged debate and believes the prestige of NASA is being used to achieve political goals that are not good for America.
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"We're concerned by the politicizing of science. NASA is ruining the reputation that we all helped to established over the last 40 or 50 years because they're taking a position that's not substantiated by scientific data."
Cunningham also offers his thoughts on the end of manned space flights here in the U.S. and what the priorities of our space program ought to be.
"The cancellation of the space shuttle is probably the single biggest mistake NASA has made in their 50-year history. It is the safest and most capable vehicle ever developed and now we're going back to try to reinvent the wheel.
"We're not pushing ahead to be the best in the world anymore."