The NASA Merch Phenomenon Has to Survive the Budget Cuts
President Donald Trump's budget cutters have turned their attention to the one government agency that almost everyone likes. Last week, his administration proposed a roughly 25% trim to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget and a whopping 47% hit to its science funding. Adjusted for inflation, that's the smallest White House allocation request for NASA since 1961, the year that the first American flew into space.
The damage to US leadership in science and technology will be significant. That part is clear. But the harm to the country's image at home and abroad deserves closer attention because by chopping away at NASA, the Trump administration is marring one of America's most powerful brands and instruments of soft power.
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