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Hot on the heels of NASA’s historic trip around the Moon, the Trump administration wasted no time in trying to deal the space agency’s budget yet another heavy blow.
Just days after four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposed 2027 top-line request — which would eviscerate NASA’s science budget by a stunning 47 percent for an overall budget reduction of 23 percent.
It’s not the first time the second Trump administration has attempted to gut the space agency. Last year, the Trump administration suggested a similarly dire budget cut — a proposal that Congress ignored outright, signaling another likely fight with lawmakers.
Now, the Planetary Society — a non-profit cofounded by astronomer Carl Sagan and is currently led by science communicator Bill Nye — has revived its “Save NASA Science” campaign to once again oppose the White House’s plans.
“If implemented, upwards of 53 science missions would be terminated, nearly half of NASA’s entire science fleet,” the group notes on its website. “Thousands of jobs would be lost, billions of dollars of taxpayer investments would be wasted, and more than a dozen international partnerships would be broken.”
“This is an extinction-level event for space science,” the Planetary Society wrote, closely echoing its statement following the Trump administration’s disastrous budget proposal last year.
In a blog post, the nonprofit singled out a whopping 84 NASA missions that would be on the chopping block if Trump’s budget were to pass, including spacecraft headed to Pluto, Jupiter, and the clouds of Venus, and even a future Mars rover.
But that’s starting to look increasingly unlikely. On Thursday, the Republican-led House commerce, justice, and science subcommittee parted ways with the OMB’s proposal, advancing its own $24.4 billion budget, which would be only a slight overall drop over last year’s $24.8 billion. (However, even that new request would result in bringing down NASA’s science budget from $7.3 billion to $6 billion, which could still put the space agency’s science portfolio at risk.)
During a heated hearing before the Senate last week, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman defended Trump’s proposed cuts, arguing the agency could do more with less, heavily drawing on the agency’s flagship Artemis program.
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