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It appears that the Trump government is considering cutting NASA's science budget in half for 2026. This will stop a number of projects including possibly the Goddard Space Flight Center. Support for the Hubble Telescope will continue until it falls apart but then no more telescope launches.
One possible reason for the cutback might be that the search for alien life will succeed and we discover that rather than being small and green, they are large and orange and want their lost child back.
On a more serious note, any cutbacks to science funding should be condemned given the developments with people losing faith in science and the rise of pseudo-science. The appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, to leading America's health departments does not provide confidence in their support of real science.
Perhaps the space programmes could be taken over by SpaceX, owned substantially by Elon Musk, President Trump's money saver. The SpaceX rockets however do explode from time to time which is worrying.
Dennis Fitzgerald,
Melbourne, Australia
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