NASA employees are bracing for layoffs and budget cuts as the congressional dispute over government funding drags on, threatening several crucial space missions\u2014including some that are already in space.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, hundreds of space advocates met with Congress to try and salvage NASA\u2019s funding, according to The Planetary Society<\/a>. The White House\u2019s proposed budget for 2026, released in May, would\u00a0reduce NASA\u2019s funding by $6 billion<\/a> compared to 2025. Under that proposal, NASA\u2019s science budget would drop from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, the fate of almost 40 NASA missions is unknown, after Congress on September 30 failed to agree on a deal to keep the federal government funded for the fiscal year 2026.<\/p>\n How has NASA been affected so far? <\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed that layoffs were imminent this month, although it is unclear how many workers might be affected, according the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. The federally funded research center in La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge, California has already endured two rounds of layoffs that impacted 855 of its employees.<\/p>\n Yet despite the government shutdown, NASA is still focused on sending astronauts to the Moon. \u201cNASA would continue to support Artemis operations during any funding lapse,\u201d the agency wrote in a statement<\/a> prior to the shutdown. The agency is deep in preparations for its next Artemis mission\u2014Artemis 2\u2014which is set to launch a a four-person crew on a journey around the Moon and back in February 2026.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s ground teams will also continue to operate its current science missions. \u201cIf a satellite mission is in the operations phase, we will maintain operations that are essential to ensure the safety of that satellite and the data received from it.\u201d<\/p>\n But not all its spacecraft are accounted for. NASA\u2019s Juno mission, launched in 2011 to study Jupiter and its moons, surpassed its latest extension deadline during the shutdown and it\u2019s not clear whether the spacecraft is still operational. The mission faces the threat of cancellation<\/a> under the White House\u2019s proposed budget, and although it hasn\u2019t been officially chopped, its funding has been cut. It remains unclear whether Juno will survive this.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-APEX mission, on the other hand, has been saved, Ars Technica reported<\/a>. A follow-on mission to OSIRIS-REx that\u2019s currently on its way to study an asteroid, Apophis, lawmakers have set aside $20 million for the mission to continue, although the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate are yet to agree on a final budget. OSIRIS-APEX was one of 19 operational missions threatened to be shut down under Trump\u2019s proposed budget.<\/p>\n What\u2019s still unknown <\/p>\n We still don\u2019t know exactly how much funding NASA will have available for each of its science missions going forward. Earlier in September, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee expressed support for several NASA missions under threat<\/a> by the proposed budget cuts. The House\u2019s commerce, justice, and science budget bill, which allocates funding to federal agencies like NASA, secured more than $24.8 billion for NASA. That\u2019s around the same amount the agency received in 2024 and 2025, but much higher than the administration\u2019s proposed $18.8 billion for 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n