“This is probably the most uncertain future that NASA has faced, perhaps since the end of Apollo,” KC Draer told me over the phone. Dreier is the head of space policy Planetary societyA non -profitable who advocates space discovery and study.
On July 10, Senate Appropriation Committee met to discuss Federal Commerce, Justice and Science Budget for 2026While on average, NASA is responsible for funding 0.3 percent In the total annual expenses by the federal government since the beginning of 2010, President Trump has cut the agency by 24 percent year after year. By any metric, their plan will be disastrous.
Adjusting for inflation, it would leave NASA with the smallest operating budget, as it became the first human to travel in space in Russian Cosmonott Yuri Gagarin 1961. In this process, it will develop the agency’s science budget by about half, resulting in the termination of 55 running and planned missions. It will also leave NASA with its smallest workforce in 70 years. All this, at a time when the agency has been tasked to return to the moon and bring humans to Mars first.
“There is no historical example for this level of single year, functionally indiscriminately and dramatic cuts. You lose, in a year, one of all active science projects. NASA is the biggest threat to science activities in the history of the agency. “
When he says that it will be impossible to change some missions, the drake is not doing exaggeration. One of the casualties of Trump’s deduction will be a new horizon investigation. In 2015, New Horizons gave us the best look in Pluto. Four years later, it demonstrated the flybe flybe far away in human history. As things are standing, it is the only active spacecraft in the cuper belt, a region of our solar system, which is not well understood by scientists. Even if NASA had to start working on a replacement today, a generation will be engaged for the vehicle where the new horizons still reach. It spends about NASA $ 14.7 million A fraction of a per year to continue the investigation $ 29.9 billion In additional funding, the Congress was recently passed by the President and allocated to fund the operation of snow enforcement and custody in the bill.
Another mission that will be impossible to change is Osiris-Acx. If the name seems familiar, it is because osris-seed is a continuation of NASA’s incredibly successful OSRIS-Rex flight. In 2020, visited spacecraft 101955 bennuAn ancient asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building, and collected a sample of resolith (rocks and dirt) from its surface, which was using the technique ever never before before.
Osaris-Rax successfully returned the sample to Earth, NASA decided to expand the mission of the spacecraft and take off to another asteroid, 99942 Epophis. In 2029, Epophis will pass about 19,600 miles from Earth. This will be the closest approach to any known esteoids of its size. NASA said the extension would add $ 200 million to a mission, already an estimated $ 1.16 billion.
“The project is a penny on the resurrection of the dollar of an existing spacecraft. It is the only American spacecraft that will be at the apophis for a generation opportunity to study an asteroid once in a generation opportunity, which will simply miss us barely,” said the Dreer. “It seems important to know.”
At a time when almost every aspect of American life is being extended, the possible cancellation of dozens of NASA missions may cause a concern, but the agency will have a wave impact on communities across the US to complete the science budget of science.
“NASA has an engine for jobs in the country, and for every NASA job, Planetary Science Professor Bethany Ehlman at the California Institute of Technology, and every NASA job, there are many more that are made in a private job.” She also works in the board of directors for the Planetary Society.
Professor Ahalaman’s claim is supported by NASA Own figuresIn 2023, the agency appointed 17,823 full -time civil servants across the country. With the support of NASA’s private sector, the agency’s mission that year was responsible for maintaining 304,803 jobs in all 50 states and Columbia district. Put another way for every full -time counterpart job in NASA facility, NASA supports at least 16 private sector jobs. “Space science has been widely supported and affects about three quarters of each Congress district of the country,” said Dreer. “It’s not just a red or blue state.”
After last week’s Senate meeting, policy makers from both sides said that they would push back on President Trump’s NASA budget cut. On Tuesday, House Appropriation Committee Deputy Committee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Passed a funding bill This would provide NASA with a total budget of $ 24.8 billion for 2026, or the same amount was allocated this year. A week ago, the same subcommittee passed its NASA funding bill in the Senate.
The two versions vary on a significant detail. The Senate Law holds the science budget of the agency at $ 7.3 billion, while the House Edition tries to reduce it by 18 percent. Separately, the house is calling for one 23 percent reduction till National science foundationBudget of. NSF gave money to most of the country’s astronomy research.
“What I am hearing from MPs is that they understand how important NASA is for the industry. They understand how important NASA is for universities in terms of training, and providing grants trained to the next generation of space workforce, said,” Professor Ehlman said, who was on Capital Hill last week. The House and the Senate will have to come on an agreement for the bill to move forward.
Even with several MPs in favor of maintaining NASA’s budget, a flat budget is still a fund cut when accounting for inflation. In addition, NASA has already been negatively affected by the efforts of the Trump administration to trim the federal workforce.
As per reporting Politician Published on 9 July, 2,694 NASA employees have agreed to leave the agency through initial retirement, a purchase or a deferred resignation. Of those individuals, 2,145 are senior posts and 1,818 are employees serving in mission areas such as human spacecraft and science. “Once the workfor is gone, they have gone. You lose a ton of institutional knowledge,” said the draon. Employees who have agreed to leave represent about 15 percent of NASA’s 2023 workforce. With the time limit of 25 July for initial retirement, voluntary separation and postponed resignations are coming quickly, this number is likely to increase. Nasal Shifting priorities Uncertainty has also arisen under Trump administration Between agency contractors,
According to the former NASA employee and NASA Watch Manufacturers are already affecting employees by cutting the construction workforce. “In 40 years I joined NASA in a way or in another way, I never saw morale so bad,” he said. “Is NASA bloated? Yes, but the way you deal with the blot is to go with a scalpel and you cut carefully. And yet you have people (eg Alone Musk) standing on stage with Chainsaw.
Whatever happens further, the drake worries that there is a possibility of a erosion in public support for NASA. He indicates survey Published by Pew Research. In 2023, the organization found that the monitoring for asteroids that could hit the Earth and monitor the change in the climate of the planet, they were two activities that Americans wanted NASA to prefer other mandals. In contrast, sending human astronauts on the moon and Mars was the least important priorities to the public.
The House version of NASA’s 2026 budget will increase the exploration budget of the agency by 25 percent to $ 9.7 billion. In Trump’s tax bill, the Senator Ted Cruise (R-TX) included a language that provided NASA $ 4.1 billion for the fourth and fifth flights of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket-this vehicle that was first prepared to take back to the moon before taking back to the moon before NASA’s first NASA’s astronauts back to the moon, such as the spectacle of NASA was ready to fly to the moon, such Was prepared.
Along with advancing the Moon and Mars missions as priorities to both the Trump administration and the house, Dreer says that “irony is the irony on the activities that the private sector is already doing – SpaceX says that it is going to send humans to Mars – and leave the things that leave the things that only do Nasa. No private sector.”
In fact, a budget of NASA that sacrifices scientific research in exchange for Mars Mission will be one that invests in things that the public says is the least important for it.
He said, “I am worried that they are going away from the fact that the public expects their space agency, and consequently, it will reduce public investment in NASA,” he said. “NASA is usually tied to the number one or two most popular federal agency. People wear NASA T-shirts. No one wears a department of internal T-shirts that is moving out of interval. It’s a rare and precious thing, and they are putting it at risk. It is not just the future of the agency, but the future of the public relationship with it.”
It was asked to comment on the story, NASA’s press secretary Bethani Stevens told Engaget in a letter by acting administrator Janet Petro NASA. Technical supplement It published the President’s budget request.
“We must be a taxpayer responsible stewers of the dollar. This means taking strategic decisions – which involves scaling back or shutting down ineffective attempts, not aligned with our moon and Mars exploration priorities” Petro wrote.
The final NASA budget for 2026 is still finally finally away. After Tuesday’s vote, the two funding bills will go to the full Senate and House Appropriation Committees for one vote and further amendments. Only then each member of each chamber will get a chance to vote on the matter. The Congress has till 30 September to complete the appropriation process before the 2025 funding. President Trump can also decide to veto the bill if it does not align with their priorities.
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