We are arriving at an important benchmark in our planning for future scientific ocean drilling and present the first version of the 2050 Science Framework, entitled Exploring Earth Through Scientific Ocean Drilling, now ready for your examination and peer review. This new 2050 Science Framework has a 25-year outlook to 2050, inspiring state-of-the-art approaches for scientific ocean drilling far into the mid-21st century. Foundational Earth science research is described in seven Strategic Objectives and five Flagship Initiatives that encourage innovation and new discoveries. The major objective of scientific ocean drilling is to advance our understanding of Earth as an interconnected system through multi-disciplinary and societally-relevant collaborative research endeavors. As the structure and roadmap to produce this framework were previously reviewed via online community postings on IODP.org in August 2019 and endorsed by the IODP Forum in September 2019, we are at this stage primarily seeking input from the international science community on the framework’s scientific merit, accuracy, and completeness, so that each chapter strongly conveys the aspirations for future scientific ocean drilling through 2050. The deadline to review the document and respond has been postponed to March 31, 2020.