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<\/p>\n\n As four astronauts soar deeper into space than humans have traveled in decades, a quarter million miles away, back on Earth, the White House has proposed slashing the budget of the space agency that sent them there.\n <\/p>\n
\n The proposal, released Friday, includes a request to give a billion-dollar boost to the agency\u2019s moon-focused Artemis program. But President Donald Trump is also requesting deep cuts to NASA\u2019s science budget \u2014 nearly 50%.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Overall, the budget proposal<\/a> would cut the agency\u2019s top line by $5.6 billion, or 23%.\n <\/p>\n \n But this latest White House proposal raises questions about how space agency leadership intends to execute on its vision of sending humans to explore the cosmos while also gutting the research efforts that underpin the United States\u2019 leadership in scientific endeavors.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s cuts to outer solar system programs, astrophysics, heliophysics \u2014 all things that feed into the human program and enable the human program,\u201d said Jack Kiraly, the director of government relations at nonprofit exploration advocacy group The Planetary Society.\n <\/p>\n \n NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who assumed the top role in December after a yearlong confirmation process<\/a>, said he supports the president\u2019s proposals.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNASA\u2019s budget is greater than every other space agency across the world,\u201d Isaacman said on CNN\u2019s State of the Union on Sunday. \u201cNASA\u2019s science budget is greater than every other space agency combined across the world.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s not clear how much China \u2014 the country with whom the US considers itself to be locked in a high-stakes race to the moon\u2014 spends on its scientific endeavors. But Isaacman noted that $10 billion worth of funding, earmarked mostly for human spaceflight and Mars exploration, was also tucked into Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill last year.\n <\/p>\n \n With that funding, Isaacman said, NASA should be able to pursue a lunar settlement, create a new Mars spacecraft powered by nuclear propulsion, and get various science missions off the ground, such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNASA doesn\u2019t have a top-line problem,\u201d Isaacman said.\n <\/p>\n \n Kiraly said he understands where Isaacman is coming from, having been a vocal proponent of finding cost savings and efficiencies where possible across the agency. But Kiraly is not convinced the president\u2019s budget proposal would lend enough support \u2014 even for the projects that Isaacman has personally bolstered.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a budget of surrender,\u201d Kiraly said.\n <\/p>\n \n Various other NASA initiatives \u2014 including maintaining and launching a replacement for the aging International Space Station \u2014 are notably left in limbo by the White House budget proposal, which has already elicited fiery criticism from various stakeholders and advocacy groups.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis proposal needlessly resurrects an existential threat to U.S. leadership in space science and exploration,\u201d reads a statement from The Planetary Society.\n <\/p>\n \n The group went so far as to say the proposal \u201cundermines\u201d the milestones NASA has recently celebrated \u2014 including the imminent Artemis II lunar flyby and the near-completion of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope \u2014 \u201cby adding needless uncertainty and disruption to NASA\u2019s workforce.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n NASA officials declined to comment at a news conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday when asked about the president\u2019s budget proposal and employee morale.\n <\/p>\n \n The Trump administration proposed nearly identical cuts to NASA\u2019s budget last year that elicited similarly negative reactions from various pockets of the space community. And lawmakers soundly rejected the funding rollbacks for the current budget cycle. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for maintaining or increasing \u2014 not cutting \u2014 the agency\u2019s scientific endeavors.\n <\/p>\n \n Kiraly pointed out that NASA\u2019s research includes seeking a better fundamental understanding of the sun through the agency\u2019s department of heliophysics. Such initiatives are crucial for understanding how our home star emits radiation, a life-and-death concern for human spaceflight missions \u2014 particularly for trips to the moon, as NASA is pursuing with the Artemis program, or Mars.\n <\/p>\n \n Isaacman previously said he is a strong advocate for such pursuits. \u201cAnything suggesting that I am anti-science or want to outsource that responsibility is simply untrue,\u201d he said in a November 4 statement amid his confirmation process.\n <\/p>\n \n But Isaacman has also positioned himself as a visionary firebrand in the space community who is ready for change.\n <\/p>\n \n A document called \u201cProject Athena\u201d<\/a> outlining his thoughts on NASA policy included calls to increase the agency\u2019s partnerships with the private sector. However, he has also recently made calls to bolster the agency\u2019s in-house capabilities and \u201ccore competencies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Isaacman has close ties to the commercial space industry. Before being tapped for the administrator role, as a private citizen, Isaacman commissioned two flights to orbit worth tens of millions of dollars aboard SpaceX capsules.\n <\/p>\n \n During his confirmation process, some lawmakers voiced concerns<\/a> that Isaacman\u2019s association with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk created a conflict of interest.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI led two missions to space at SpaceX because it\u2019s the only organization that can send astronauts to and from space since the Shuttle was retired,\u201d Isaacman said during his December confirmation hearing, one of two held last year to evaluate his nomination. \u201cAnd in that respect, my relationship is no different than that of NASA.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The latest budget proposal also leaves some commercial partnerships in limbo. For years, NASA has made clear its intention to tap the private sector to build and launch a space station to low-Earth orbit to take over for the 25-year-old International Space Station. It operates as a joint venture between the US, Canada, the European Union, Japan and Russia just a couple hundred miles above Earth, and it serves as a stage for experiments and technology development that help inform deep-space exploration.\n <\/p>\n \n At a recent event in Washington, DC, called \u201cIgnition Day,\u201d<\/a> Isaacman and several fellow NASA executives made clear private companies don\u2019t have much of a financial incentive to pursue the build-out of an orbiting laboratory. That could leave NASA as the sole financial backer for such a station.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTourism hasn\u2019t really materialized as a market,\u201d said Dana Weigel, NASA\u2019s International Space Station program manager, at the March 24 Ignition Day event. \u201cWe certainly have had a number of tourist-sponsored missions, but those have been limited and we haven\u2019t seen recurring demand for them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That sentiment has been quietly acknowledged in the space community for years, but it has not been reflected in formal policy.\n <\/p>\n \n The agency\u2019s new plan, it said in a statement, is to \u201creaffirm\u201d its commitment to standing up a new space station with its international partners in low-Earth orbit, as the move is considered a \u201cnational security imperative\u201d to sustain such operations. (China also operates a space station in this area of space.)\n <\/p>\n \n Previously, NASA had planned to hand out multibillion-dollar contracts to one or a few of several companies pursuing orbital destination. Now, the agency said it\u2019s reassessing its plan of attack and instead hopes to partner with a company to attach a new module to the existing space station that would spin off on its own when a commercial market is available.\n <\/p>\n \n How much funding would be required to pull off the new plan isn\u2019t clear \u2014 and the president\u2019s budget request throws even more uncertainty on the issue. The proposal suggests slashing the ISS budget by $1.1 billion, though a budget boost was included in last year\u2019s omnibus bill.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe Budget prioritizes the rapid development and deployment of commercial space stations, while also keeping the safe de-orbit of the ISS on track for 2030,\u201d the budget proposal states.\n <\/p>\n \n But it appears unlikely that NASA can support an ISS replacement, given the proposed funding levels.\n <\/p>\n \n Kiraly said that if Isaacman\u2019s Ignition Day announcements cast a pall of uncertainly on NASA\u2019s plans for a low-Earth orbit space station, the presidential budget \u201cis tripling, quadrupling down\u201d on that confusion.\n <\/p>\n \n The National Space Society, another space-focused nonprofit, was complimentary of some of the cost-saving initiatives spelled out in the funding proposal. But the group also called<\/a> the proposed changes to space station funding \u201cunwise and counterproductive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cA strong NASA requires both a robust exploration program and a fully funded science portfolio,\u201d the group\u2019s statement reads. \u201cThese are not competing priorities \u2014 they are mutually reinforcing pillars of U.S. space leadership.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01t174443z-1050407268-rc2hgkagl5jw-rtrmadp-3-space-moon-artemis.JPG\")
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