Frequent readers of this blog know that ‘Space News’ is probably my most common topic and they have come to expect stories about space missions and spacecraft, both manned and unmanned, past, present and future. Not this time however because thanks to Trump’s determination to screw up every department of our government the big news about space this month all deals with politics and budgets.
Trump wants another big tax cut for himself and his billionaire buddies, a tax cut that is estimated to add more than another $3 Trillion dollars to our national debt. The sheer recklessness of this plan has already caused the credit agency Moody’s to downgrade our nation’s credit rating from its triple ‘A’ position and Moody’s was the last of the big credit agencies to give US bonds such a high rating. In order to minimize the increase to the deficit somewhat Republicans in congress are searching high and low for cuts that they can make in federal spending. They can’t cut back on Social Security or Medicare, that would be political suicide, and Trump actually wants to increase the military budget so every other government agency is being targeted for massive cutbacks.
That includes NASA. A proposed budget for the space agency in 2026 has been released and it contains a overall reduction of nearly 20% in NASA’s resources, much of which will come from the science budget. Overall NASA’s budget would drop from its current $25 billion to less than $20 billion but the science budget, the best part, the part of NASA that has achieved the most notable discoveries over the last twenty-five years, would see its budget slashed from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion.
Specific details include cutting the astrophysics budget by two thirds to $487 million and the heliophysics budget by even more to just $455 million. Earth science would see its funding cut in half to $1.033 billion and planetary science would suffer a thirty percent drop to $1.929 billion. Fortunately most existing science programs like the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes along with the Mars rover Perseverance and Parker Solar Probe would continue to be funded, all be it at a lower level.
Not so new programs like the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope and the Mars Sample Return (MSR), which could be canceled entirely. This is especially bad for the Nancy Grace Roman telescope, which has finished construction and is now undergoing testing in preparation for a scheduled launch as early as 2026. Any missions beyond that, for example proposed helicopters for both Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan probably won’t even get off of the drawing board because there simple won’t be any money to fund them.
How much these budget cuts will effect manned missions remains to be seen, but you can bet that there won’t be an increase over the number that are currently planned. At the moment NASA still intends to continue to man the International Space Station (ISS) until it is de-orbited in the year 2030 and to proceed with the Artemis Lunar program at a rate of about one mission per year. In fact Lockheed-Martin has recently delivered the Mission 2 Orion manned capsule to NASA for a possible mission in early 2026.
However it must be remembered that Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s Department Of Government Efficiency or DOGE, who just happens to be the CEO of Space X, has publicly declared that the ISS should be de-orbited as soon as possible. There are also rumours that Trump will cancel the Space Launch System (SLS), the big and very expensive rocket that will take the Artemis astronauts to the Moon, immediately after the mission that actually puts Americans back on the Moon. That would be just like Trump, he’d make a big deal about how he was the one who got us back to the Moon and then cancel any further missions, goodbye lunar base!
And now Trump and Elon have had a big bust up over Musk’s criticism of how the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will add more than three trillion dollars to the nation’s debt. Like a pair of immature children the two have been trading insults and threats including Trump’s to cancel all of Musk’s federal contracts, which would leave NASA with no way to get its astronauts to the ISS. And don’t forget that Space X is also building the Lunar lander for the Artemis program. Canceling that contract would leave NASA without a vehicle to actually put astronauts on the Moon’s surface.
The exploration of space requires long-term planning and financial commitment, which is difficult to do when you’re at the mercy of politicians who are incapable of thinking past the next election. And now we are strapped with a president whose attention span is that of a five year old. All of which makes it a good bet that the next person to set foot on the Moon will be Chinese!
Speaking of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope the spacecraft has completed its assembly and is now undergoing final testing, including shock and thermal testing in a giant vacuum chamber. The testing is taking place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which is also slated to be closed due the budget cuts discussed above. Once the testing is completed the Space Telescope will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center where it will be prepared for a launch as soon as late fall of next year, 2026. Assuming of course, it doesn’t just get canceled after all of the money that’s already been spent on it!
One final note, which probably also has something to do with the budget cuts is that as of June 12th NASA will no longer be supporting its ‘Spot the Station’ website! For several decades now the information available on this website has enabled people from around the World to experience something of space exploration as they watched the ISS fly across the sky.
Well no longer, the website will be closed as of June 12th. NASA plans to continue their mobile app so you can still get the information you need to watch the ISS pass overhead but let’s be honest, we should have more ways to get people, especially young people interested in space and science. Instead, we’ll now have one less way!