NASA’s science programs budget could be slashed by 50 percent in fiscal year 2026, people familiar with the Trump administration’s budget request warn
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NASA could experience “extinction-level” cuts in President Donald Trump’s upcoming budget request, sources say.
The president has begun shaking up the space agency with members of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency on-site at its facilities to review contracts and spending last month. The White House also made a last-minute decision to pause mass firing up to 1,000 probationary federal employees.
On Friday, multiple sources familiar with the Trump administration’s proposal told Ars Technica that NASA's science programs, delivered through the Science Mission Directorate, could face sweeping 50 percent cuts for fiscal year 2026.
Overall, NASA could face an approximate 25 percent budget cut, they added.
Space advocacy organization The Planetary Society told The Independent that multiple NASA sources had verified the proposal to them.
NASA’s science programs budget could be slashed in half, according to sourcesopen image in gallery
NASA’s science programs budget could be slashed in half, according to sources (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
In a statement Friday, it said the result of the cuts “would be nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the United States.”
Speaking to reporters in Houston on Thursday, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Nicola Fox, denied receiving official information about the proposed budget reductions.
“We haven't had any information yet about the budget, and I hate planning something on rumors and speculation,” she said.
About 30 percent of the space agency’s $25 billion is allocated to science programs.
Some of NASA’s most significant achievements over recent decades have been delivered by science programs, including its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying above the Red Planet and New Horizons becoming the first spacecraft to explore Pluto.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought is believed to be spearheading the proposed budget cuts, sources said.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought previously suggested cuts in a FY 2023 shadow statement through his think tankopen image in gallery
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought previously suggested cuts in a FY 2023 shadow statement through his think tank (AP)
In a shadow budget for FY 2023, Vought’s conservative think tank the Center for Renewing America proposed a 50 percent reduction in NASA science programs due to its “misguided” spending on carbon reduction systems and climate change programs.
The proposed cuts, however, seem at odds with Trump’s goal of commercializing space and planting the American flag on Mars.
The president’s alleged request for NASA’s budget is just a starting point for negotiations with Congress.
Trump’s budget proposal could be up to three months late, the top House Republican appropriator, Oklahoma Representative Tom Cole, told reporters earlier this week.
Cole said he doesn’t expect to receive the budget request “before late April to early May.”
The Independent has contacted NASA and the White House for more information.