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On August 6, 1996, a dramatic shift in policy was apparently set in motion. A press release, personally endorsed by none other than the NASA administrator Daniel Goldin himself, startled the entire world: The next day, President Clinton joined the elation with a press announcement on the South Lawn of the White House: "This is the product of years of exploration and months of intensive study by some of the world's most distinguished scientists. Like all discoveries, this one will and should continue to be reviewed, examined and scrutinized. It must be confirmed by other scientists. But clearly, the fact that some-thing of this magnitude is being explored is another vindication of America's space program and our continuing support for it, even in these tough financial times. I am determined that the American space program will put its full intellectual power and technological prowess behind the search for further evidence of life on Mars.... "Today, rock 84001 speaks to us across all those billions of years and millions of miles. It speaks of the possibility of life. If this discovery is con-firmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Even as it promises answers to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental. "We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say as we continue the search for answers and for knowledge that is as old as humanity itself but essential to our ened ate Be people's future." Since the announcement, a number of investigative teams have expressed considerable doubt regarding the evidence presented by Goldin and the NASA team.** Nevertheless, the event marked a significant policy change for the administration. Life in space was now "in." The cynics snickered that it was just a clever ploy by NASA to facilitate desperate funding. It may, however, be far more than that. In subsequent months the Mars announcement was followed by similar, less dramatic announcements by NASA touting the discovery of liquid water on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons: "Tantalizing new images of Jupiter's moon Europa from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicate that ‘warm ice' or even liquid water may have existed and perhaps still exists beneath Europa's cracked icy crust. Europa has long been considered by scientists and celebrated in science fiction as one of the handful of places in the solar system (along with Mars and Saturn's moon Titan) that could possess an environment where primitive life forms could possibly exist."° A subsequent news release heralded the possibility of a mass of ice in the giant crater known as the Aitken Basin near the south pole of the moon.' More announcements of this ted - oe." A SUDDEN CHANGE OF POLICY "NASA Scientists Find Evidence of Life on Mars." "Jupiter's Europa Harbors Possible ‘warm ice' or Liquid Water" kind are sure to follow.