This week The White House, a part of the process of developing a fiscal year, shared a draft budget request for NASA with a space agency.
The initial version of the administration’s budget request must be cut from about $ 25 billion to $ 5 billion in general, about 20 %of the agency’s budget. However, most of the cuts are concentrated on the science mission director of the institution that supervise all planetary science, earth science, and astronomical physics research.
According to the “Passback” document provided to NASA officials on Thursday, the scientific program of space countries will reduce nearly 50 %of funds. After the agency received $ 7.5 billion in science in fiscal year in 2025, the Trump administration proposed a $ 3.9 billion budget of $ 3.9 billion in fiscal year.
Explain the cut in detail
Among these proposals, two -thirds of astrophysics ($ 447 million), Heliosys ($ 450 million), more than 50 % ($ 1.03 billion) in earth science, and more than 50 % ($ 1.929 billion), down 30 % to planetary science, were cut.
The budget will continue to support continuous missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Web Space Telescope, but will kill the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the same observatory as the two world -class instruments that are already completely assembled and have a budget to be released within two years.
“Passback supports the continuous operation of Hubble and James Web Space Telescope and assumes that no funds are provided for other telescopes.
Other important cuts include end -of -end funds for Mars sample revenue and Davinci Mission for Venus. Budget cuts also seem to force the closure of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Passback process
The cut is matched with something ARS Technica reported exclusively last monthThe Trump administration was considering a large 50 %reduction in NASA’s scientific programs. In public, some officials have neglected this concern. This week, NASA’s acting manager Janet Petro, It is characterized by Lee Bogo As a “rumor of trusted sources”.
But scientific policy experts were more surprised to characterize cuts such as the “extinct” event, which is considered a crown jewel of a space institution. In the last 25 years, NASA’s most important achievements were delivered by almost all scientific programs, which were delivered by science programs, including achievements such as Flying Flying, Pluto New Horizons, and Cassini’s ENCELADUS.
This passback document is just the opening ceremony of the process for establishing a federal budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on October 1 this year. The budget is produced by the White House management and budget office, and has long been supervised by Russell Vought. On the other hand, the science budget priorities have been clearly prioritized. Through his renewal center.
The Trump administration candidate, who leads NASA, a private asaacman, a private astronaacman This week’s confirmation hearing He strongly supported NASA’s science programs. Since ISAACMAN has not yet been confirmed by the US Senate, it is unlikely that ISAACMAN has been involved in writing this document. Candidates are generally excluded from the policy before confirmation.
