Trump proposes 23% NASA cut, slashing science and ISS
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- Trump released a FY2027 budget blueprint calling for a 23% ($5.6 billion) cut to NASA’s discretionary budget, lowering it to $18.8 billion.
- NASA’s Artemis program would receive $8.5 billion in 2027 to fund commercial lunar landers, spacesuits, rovers, habitats, and transport.
- NASA science funding would be slashed by $3.4 billion, a near‑50% reduction that would cancel more than 40 “low‑priority” missions, including the already‑canceled Mars Sample Return.
- Planetary Society called the proposed cuts “draconian” and warned they resurrect an existential threat to U.S. leadership in space science.
- White House proposes a $1.1 billion cut to International Space Station funding, keeping its retirement and de‑orbit schedule for 2030, contrary to a congressional bill to extend the ISS to 2032.
- White House also seeks a $297 million reduction in NASA’s space‑technology directorate, labeling certain projects “frivolous”.
Why it matters: The cuts would dramatically reduce NASA’s science budget and International Space Station support, curtailing research and international cooperation, while redirecting funds toward commercial lunar landers and a Moon base—benefiting contractors and the Trump administration’s lunar‑first agenda but jeopardizing U.S. scientific leadership.
