The Trump administration is considering the possibility of cutting NASA's science budget by 50% - Ars Technica

The White House may try to cut NASA's science budget by as much as 50 percent, citing sources, reports Ars Technica, writes UNN.

Details

Although the Trump administration has not yet published its budget request, senior officials are beginning to receive briefings on the president's priorities. Among them is NASA, where significant changes are expected. One of the most radical proposals is a substantial reduction in funding for scientific programs at the space agency.

Numerous sources familiar with the White House's plan indicate that the "Science Mission Directorate" may face a budget cut of up to 50 percent. Although final decisions have not yet been made, the main goal seems to be a significant reduction in spending on science.

Nicola Fox, assistant administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, addressed this issue at a press conference in Houston but refrained from speculating on possible cuts. "We currently have no information about the budget, and I hate to plan anything based on rumors and speculation," Fox said.

If implemented, these cuts could have dire consequences. Casey Dreier, director of space policy at The Planetary Society, called them a "mass extinction-level event" for U.S. space science, warning of mission cancellations, workforce reductions, and the loss of global leadership in space exploration.

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In many ways, NASA's science directorate is the jewel of the space agency. Almost all of the most significant achievements over the past 25 years have been accomplished through scientific programs: the Ingenuity flight on Mars, the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, sample returns from asteroids and comets, the Cassini discovery of water plumes on Enceladus, the continuous presence of robots on Mars, and much more. Even the recent Moon landings by Firefly and Intuitive Machines were funded by NASA's science directorate.

However, of NASA's approximately $25 billion science budget, only about 30 percent is allocated. In the 2024 fiscal year, this amount was $7.4 billion. These expenditures were broken down into approximately $2.7 billion for planetary science, $2.2 billion for Earth science, $1.5 billion for astrophysics, and $800 million for heliophysics.

Sources reported that NASA may face an overall budget cut of about 25 percent.

Scientists fear that such a budget will fall behind future exploration in our Solar System to China, which last year unveiled a long-term research plan to compete with and potentially surpass its rivals, including NASA and the United States.

The U.S. Congress will ultimately decide on NASA's funding level, but given the political climate, the proposed cuts pose a serious problem for the agency's future.

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