Look through a drinking straw at the night sky, and you’ll see a tiny circle of black, perhaps a star or two if you’re lucky. It will seem rather unimpressive. But deep within those millimeters of darkness reside about 10,000 galaxies, some dating back almost to the beginning of the universe, and so faint that no Earth-bound telescope ever had a hope of glimpsing them.

What finally did glimpse them was not Earth-bound. It was the Hubble Space Telescope, floating 380 miles above Earth’s surface, and it took pictures, lots of them, resulting in an iconic composite image known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, first released to astronomers in January 1996. The image, hailed as a landmark in humanity’s search for its origins, is just one scientific trophy in a long series from Hubble, and it was born right here, in Baltimore.

“The fact that the Hubble Space Telescope is run out of Baltimore is one of Baltimore’s best-kept secrets,” says Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which runs Hubble’s operations. “Some of the most revolutionary ideas in astrophysics will actually emerge from Baltimore. The Hubble has changed the way we think. We know how old the universe is for the very first time, we know how many galaxies there are for the very first time, we found this stuff called dark energy—that all happened from here. And I think people don’t realize that Baltimore actually is the planetary center of space science.”

U.S. space science is at a crossroads. For the last 30 years, its most visible and successful program has been the space shuttle—reusable craft that allowed astronauts to ferry back and forth between Earth and space. But with the final launch of the shuttle program on July 8, the United States now has no ability to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft, leaving a vacuum into which Maryland has the expertise and experience to move.

Maryland boasts the highest concentration of astronomers in the country, 11 times the national average, and the second highest concentration of physicists. It’s home to an exhaustive list of long-running and successful organizations and businesses, government-funded and private, that contribute directly or indirectly to space and Earth science. In addition to STScI and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) here in Baltimore—which, along with myriad other accomplishments, recently launched MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to enter Mercury’s orbit—the state boasts the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, which has sent instruments to every planet in the solar system and partners with STScI in running Hubble; cutting-edge space programs at universities such as Bowie State, Morgan State, and the University of Maryland’s College Park, Eastern Shore, and Baltimore County campuses; the U.S. Naval Research laboratory Center for Space Technology; the U.S. Naval Academy, which has graduated more U.S. astronauts than any other undergraduate institution; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring. Maryland’s space sector is currently contracted at $1.4 billion a year from NASA; it employs 15,061 people, totaling more than $1.6 billion in wages.

One of Maryland’s most visible projects is, of course, the Hubble. But it won’t be alive forever. The telescope owes its long operational life to the space shuttles; five times they’ve carried astronauts to perform repairs and replace fading, outdated equipment. Without them, its instruments will eventually fail; its batteries will die.

That’s why in 1995—only five years after Hubble launched—the institute began plans for its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), named after the NASA administrator who convinced President John F. Kennedy that NASA was about science, not just about sending men to the moon. The telescope, which is being developed at Goddard and will be controlled by STScI, is currently scheduled for launch sometime in 2018, hopefully before Hubble dies. Webb’s primary goals are the stuff of science fiction. Because it “sees” in the infrared, rather than in visible light, it will be able to probe 13.7 billion years into the past, to the time when the universe’s first galaxies—galaxies like ours—were forming. It can see through the dust and gas of nebulas and watch stars as they’re being born. And it can find water on other planets, if it exists, the first likely hint to astronomers of extrasolar life.

“Astronomy is on the cusp of changing the way we think,” Mountain says. “Probably as revolutionary as Copernicus and Darwin put together. Can you imagine what it would be like if we actually found life on another planet? We are on that verge.”

But with the country in a $1.5 trillion deficit, some members of Congress are balking at Webb’s $6.5 billion price tag. On July 6, the House Appropriations subcommittee that provides funding to NASA, among other science agencies, announced a bill that would reduce NASA’s budget by $1.6 billion from the $18.4 billion the agency had in fiscal 2011, including cutting all funding to the Webb. The project is “billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management,” the bill states. The cut to the Webb was approved by the Appropriations Committee on July 13, and now faces the House floor.

The bill has a long way to go, but with imminent cuts to its already strapped budget, the threatened loss of its champion project, and the end of its only operating human spaceflight program, NASA needs to carefully consider where it’s heading next. Wherever it heads—whichever planets we touch or stars we reach—Maryland is preparing to stay in the lead.

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