Latest news with #ThePlanetarySociety
Engadget
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Engadget
Trump's defunding of NASA would be catastrophic
"This is probably the most uncertain future NASA has faced, maybe since the end of Apollo," Casey Dreier tells me over the phone. Dreier is the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for the exploration and study of space. On July 10, the Senate Appropriations Committee met to discuss the proposed federal Commerce, Justice and Science budget for 2026. While on average, funding for NASA has accounted for about 0.3 percent of total yearly spending by the federal government since the start of the 2010s, President Trump has called for a 24 percent cut year over year to the agency's operating allowance. By any metric, his plan would be devastating. Adjusted for inflation, it would leave NASA with the smallest operating budget it has had since Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to space in 1961. In the process, it would eviscerate the agency's science budget by nearly half, resulting in the termination of 55 ongoing and or planned missions. It would also leave NASA with its smallest workforce in 70 years. All this, at a time when the agency has been tasked with returning to the Moon and bringing the first humans to Mars. "There's no historical precedent to this level of single year, functionally indiscriminate and dramatic cuts. You lose, in one year, a third of all active science projects. [The Trump administration is] proposing to turn off missions that are performing not just good science, but unique and irreplaceable science. This isn't so they can reinvest the money in some radical new science efforts. No, the money is gone," said Dreier. "It's almost certainly the greatest threat to NASA science activities in the history of the space agency." Dreier isn't exaggerating when he says some missions would be impossible to replace. One of the casualties of Trump's cuts would be the New Horizons probe. In 2015, New Horizons gave us our best look at Pluto ever. Four years later, it performed the farthest flyby in human history. As things stand, it's the only active spacecraft in the Kuiper belt, a region of our solar system that is not well-understood by scientists. Even if NASA were to start working on a replacement today, it would take a generation for that vehicle to reach where New Horizons is right now. It costs NASA about $14.7 million per year to continue operating the probe, a fraction of the $29.9 billion in additional funding Congress allocated to fund ICE enforcement and detainment operations in the president's recently passed tax bill. Another mission that would be impossible to replace is OSIRIS-APEX. If the name sounds familiar, it's because OSRIS-APEX is a continuation of NASA's incredibly successful OSRIS-REx flight. In 2020, the spacecraft visited 101955 Bennu, an ancient asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building, and collected a sample of regolith (rocks and dirt) from its surface using a never-before-tried technique. After OSRIS-REx successfully returned the sample to Earth, NASA decided to extend the spacecraft's mission and fly to another asteroid, 99942 Apophis. In 2029, Apophis will pass about 19,600 miles from Earth. It will be the closest approach of any known asteroid of its size. NASA said the extension would add $200 million to a mission that had already cost it an estimated $1.16 billion. "This project is a pennies on the dollar repurposing of an existing spacecraft. It's the only American spacecraft that will be at Apophis for a once in a generation opportunity to study an asteroid that will just barely miss us," said Dreier. "That seems important to know." At a time when nearly every facet of American life is being upturned, the potential cancellation of dozens of NASA missions might seem a distant concern, but the gutting of the agency's science budget would have a ripple effect on communities across the US. "NASA is an engine for jobs in the country, and for every NASA job, there are many more that are created in the private workforce," said Bethany Ehlmann, Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology. She also serves on the board of directors for The Planetary Society. Professor Ehlmann's claim is supported by NASA's own data. In 2023, the agency employed 17,823 full-time civil servants nationwide. With NASA's private sector support factored in, that year the agency's missions were responsible for sustaining 304,803 jobs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Put another way, for every full-time equivalent job at a NASA facility, NASA supports at least 16 private sector jobs. "Space science has been broadly supported and impacts roughly three quarters of every congressional district in the country," said Dreier. "It's not just a red or blue state thing." Following last week's Senate meeting, policymakers from both parties said they would push back on President Trump's NASA budget cuts. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies passed a funding bill that would provide NASA with a total budget of $24.8 billion for 2026, or the same amount it was allocated this year. The week before, the corresponding subcommittee in the Senate passed its own NASA funding bill. The two versions differ on one critical detail. The Senate legislation maintains the agency's science budget at $7.3 billion, while the House version seeks to reduce it by 18 percent to $6 billion. Separately, the House is calling for a 23 percent cut to the National Science Foundation's budget. NSF funds much of the nation's astronomy research. "What I'm hearing from lawmakers is that they understand how important NASA is to industry. They understand how important NASA is to universities in terms of training, and providing grants that train the next generation of the space workforce," said Professor Ehlmann, who was on Capitol Hill last week. The House and Senate will need to come to an agreement for the bill to move forward. Even with many lawmakers in favor of maintaining NASA's budget, a flat budget is still a funding cut when accounting for inflation. Moreover, NASA has already been negatively affected by the Trump administration's efforts to trim the federal workforce. According to reporting Politico published on July 9, 2,694 NASA employees have agreed to leave the agency through either early retirement, a buyout or a deferred resignation. Of those individuals, 2,145 are workers in senior positions and 1,818 are staff serving in missions areas like human spaceflight and science. "Once the workforce is gone, they're gone. You lose a ton of institutional knowledge," said Dreier. The employees who have agreed to leave represent about 15 percent of NASA's 2023 workforce of 17,823. With the July 25 deadline for early retirement, voluntary separation and deferred resignations quickly approaching, that number is likely to grow. NASA's shifting priorities under the Trump administration have also created uncertainty among the agency's contractors. According to former NASA employee and NASA Watch creator Keith Cowing the workforce cuts are already affecting employees. "In the 40 years I've been involved with NASA in one way or another, I've never seen morale so bad," he said. "Is NASA bloated? Yeah, but the way you deal with bloat is to go in with a scalpel and you cut carefully. And yet you have people [like Elon Musk] standing on stage with chainsaws. That is not the way to run government, and it's certainly not the way to create the machinery needed to explore the universe." Whatever happens next, Dreier worries there's the potential for there to be an erosion in public support for NASA. He points to a survey published by Pew Research. In 2023, the organization found that monitoring for asteroids that could hit Earth and tracking changes to the planet's climate were the two activities Americans wanted NASA to prioritize over other mandates. By contrast, sending human astronauts to the Moon and Mars were the least important priorities for the public. The House version of NASA's 2026 budget would boost the agency's exploration budget by 25 percent to $9.7 billion. In Trump's tax bill, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) included language that provided NASA with $4.1 billion for the fourth and fifth flights of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — the vehicle intended to carry the first NASA astronauts back to the Moon before before private sector alternatives like SpaceX's Starship are ready to fly. With both the Trump administration and House pushing Moon and Mars missions as priorities, Dreier says they're "ironically doubling down on the activities that the private sector is already doing — SpaceX says it's going to send humans to Mars — and abandoning the things that only NASA does. There's no private sector company doing space science." In effect, a NASA budget that sacrifices on scientific research in lieu of Mars missions would be one that invests in things the public says are the least important to it. "I worry that they're moving away from what the public expects their space agency to do, and that as a consequence, it will undermine public investment in NASA," he said. "NASA is usually tied for the number one or two most popular federal agency. People wear NASA t-shirts. No one wears a Department of the Interior t-shirt walking out of the GAP. It's a rare and precious thing to have, and they're risking it. It's not just the future of the agency that's at risk, but the future of the public's relationship with it." When asked for comment on this story, Bethany Stevens, NASA's press secretary, pointed Engadget to a letter from Acting Administrator Janet Petro NASA shared in a technical supplement it published alongside the president's budget request. "We must continue to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. That means making strategic decisions — including scaling back or discontinuing ineffective efforts not aligned with our Moon and Mars exploration priorities" Petro wrote. The final NASA budget for 2026 is still months away from being finalized. After Tuesday's vote, the two funding bills will move to the full Senate and House appropriations committees for a vote and further revisions. Only after that will every member of each chamber get a chance to vote on the matter. Congress has until September 30 to complete the appropriations process before 2025 funding runs out. President Trump could also decide to veto the bill if it doesn't align with his priorities. Have a tip for Igor? You can reach him by email , on Bluesky or send a message to @Kodachrome.72 to chat confidentially on Signal.
Gizmodo
15-07-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
An Iconic NASA Probe Is at Threat of Being Shut Down Due to Trump Cuts
On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto, revealing unprecedented close-up views of the complex icy world. The iconic mission is still returning data from the far reaches of the solar system, but a lack of funding now threatens to end the mission prematurely. As NASA celebrates the 10th anniversary of the historic Pluto flyby, the space agency is also bracing for budget cuts that threaten the historic New Horizons probe. The White House's budget proposal, released in May, reduces NASA's upcoming budget by $6 billion compared to 2025. Under the proposed budget, NASA's planetary science budget would drop from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion. The severe drop in funding would kill dozens of active and planned missions, including New Horizons. New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006, and traveled 9 billion miles in nine and a half years to become the first spacecraft to reach Pluto. Its journey through the harsh space environment wasn't the only challenge; members of the space community advocated for nearly 20 years for the approval of the spacecraft, according to The Planetary Society. At the time, NASA missions to Pluto were deemed not worth the cost. As a result, New Horizons was nearly canceled on multiple occasions due to budgeting conflicts. In 2002, the White House tried to kill the mission after NASA had already started developing it, but a massive backlash forced Congress to step in and restore New Horizons' funding. Despite its rocky start, New Horizons is now hailed as one of the most successful planetary missions. Following its close encounter with Pluto, the mission revealed that the icy planet and its moons are far more complex than scientists had initially assumed. New Horizons imaged a giant, heart-shaped icy plain on Pluto, which may sit above a subsurface ocean. It also revealed cryovolcanoes, indicating a geologically active body and not a dead, frozen world. The mission also explored Pluto's icy, chaotic moons, which rotate chaotically. Beyond Pluto, New Horizons continues to explore the outer reaches of the solar system. The spacecraft is shedding light on the mysterious planets and smaller objects of the outer solar system. In January 2019, New Horizons conducted the most distant flyby of a Kuiper Belt object when it explored Arrokoth, a frozen relic in the icy region beyond Neptune. The double-lobed object serves as a relic from the early solar system. The successful Arrokoth flyby earned New Horizons a mission extension, allowing the spacecraft to continue exploring until it exits the Kuiper Belt in 2029. 'The New Horizons mission has a unique position in our solar system to answer important questions about our heliosphere and provide extraordinary opportunities for multidisciplinary science for NASA and the scientific community,' Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement at the time. New Horizons has enough fuel to carry out another flyby of a Kuiper Belt object, and mission teams are currently searching for its next possible target. If the current budget proposal is approved, New Horizons will be turned off long before its expiration date, which would cost us years of valuable data. After Voyager 1 and 2, the New Horizons spacecraft is the third most distant human-built object from Earth. It would take years for another spacecraft to reach that distance. 'We're the only spacecraft out there,' Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons, told The Planetary Society. 'There's nothing else planned to come this way.'
India.com
12-07-2025
- Politics
- India.com
NASA facing a major exodus? Space agency to lose most experienced employees due to..., 2145 senior staff members, 875 top-level workers planning to...
NASA is about to lose a large number of its most experienced employees. According to an internal report shared by Politico , 2,145 senior staff members in important roles including 875 top-level GS-15 workers are planning to leave. In total, 2,694 NASA employees have chosen to take early retirement, accept buyout offers, or delay their resignations. These people hold important technical and leadership positions, and their exit could have a big impact on NASA's work. This is all part of a larger effort to reduce the size of the workforce. But with so many skilled people leaving at once, it's raising concerns about how NASA will manage its future projects. Is NASA facing a major exodus? NASA is seeing a huge wave of resignations, with 1,818 employees from its main missions in science and human spaceflight planning to leave. Many others from important support roles like IT and finance are also going. Experts are worried this means NASA is losing a big part of its technical and leadership strength. Casey Dreier, a space policy expert from The Planetary Society, warned that the agency is losing the people who keep its core work running, and raised serious questions about whether this is the right move. These exits are happening at the same time as a proposed 25 per cent budget cut in 2026 from the White House. That plan could reduce NASA's total workforce by over 5,000 employees, bringing it down to its smallest size since the early 1960s. All 10 of NASA's regional centers will be hit, including: Goddard Space Flight Center – losing 607 staff Johnson Space Center – 366 staff Kennedy Space Center – 311 staff NASA Headquarters – 307 staff Langley Research Center – 281 staff Marshall Space Flight Center – 279 staff Glenn Research Center – 191 staff A big loss of experience at NASA The recent wave of staff exits at NASA is causing serious concern, especially because many of those leaving are key to future space missions, including plans to return to the Moon by 2027 and future Mars exploration. Some job cuts, like those at the Goddard Space Flight Center, match the White House's cost-cutting goals. But others are taking away vital knowledge and skills that NASA depends on. One outgoing employee, who asked to stay anonymous, said the agency is facing 'a lot of experience drain' and that this could disrupt operations. Casey Dreier from The Planetary Society said: 'You're losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency. What's the strategy, and what do we hope to achieve here?' One former NASA staff member said they chose to resign partly because they were worried about the future. They mentioned fear over major budget cuts and the fact that NASA still doesn't have a Senate-confirmed administrator, saying, 'Things just sound like it's going to get worse.' So far, only half of the planned 5,000 job cuts have been reached through early retirements and voluntary exits. If enough people don't leave through this program which ends July 25 the agency may be forced to make involuntary job cuts.
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Over 2,000 senior-level NASA employees resign, one 'warns': Things just sound like it's going to get ..
NASA is facing a significant loss of expertise, with 2,145 senior-level employees in GS-13 to GS-15 positions, including 875 GS-15 staff, set to depart, according to internal documents cited by Politico. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now These employees, who represent critical managerial and technical expertise, make up the majority of the 2,694 civil staff accepting early retirement, buyouts, or deferred resignations as part of broader federal workforce reduction efforts. Is it Exodus at NASA The exodus spans NASA's core mission areas, with 1,818 staff from science and human space flight roles leaving, alongside others in support functions like IT and finance. 'You're losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency,' warned Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, questioning the strategy behind the departures align with a proposed 2026 White House budget that would cut NASA's funding by 25% and reduce staff by over 5,000, shrinking the agency to its smallest size since the early 1960s. All 10 NASA regional centers are affected, with Goddard Space Flight Center losing 607 staff, Johnson Space Center 366, Kennedy Space Center 311, NASA headquarters 307, Langley Research Center 281, Marshall Space Flight Center 279, and Glenn Research Center 191. Lot of experience drain While some cuts, like those at Goddard, align with White House goals, the loss of staff critical to lunar missions by mid-2027 and future Mars plans raises concerns. A departing NASA staffer, speaking anonymously, described the cuts as causing 'a lot of experience drain,' potentially disrupting operations. 'You're losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency,' said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'What's the strategy and what do we hope to achieve here?' A an employee who has resigned described their decision to leave as influenced in part by fear of the proposed NASA budget cuts and the lack of a Senate-approved NASA administrator: 'Things just sound like it's going to get worse.' The staffer cited fears of deeper budget cuts and the absence of a Senate-approved NASA administrator as factors in their decision to only half of the White House's targeted 5,000 staff reductions met, further involuntary cuts loom if participation in the deferred resignation program, ending July 25, falls short. However, Congress could reject these proposals, as the Senate Commerce Committee has signaled support for retaining NASA staff in a March bill.
Axios
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
California could get hit hardest by Trump's NASA budget cuts
NASA spends an average of $3 billion annually in California on scientific missions — the highest of any state, per data from The Planetary Society, a pro-space nonprofit. Why it matters: NASA's science efforts bear the brunt of cuts to the agency in the Trump administration's proposed budget, which would slash science funding by nearly 50% to $3.9 billion. State of play: Science represents roughly 30% of NASA's budget, supporting missions like space telescopes, robotic probes and satellites that gather data about Earth's changing climate. While not always as headline-grabbing as human spaceflight, NASA's science activity has greatly enhanced our scientific understanding of both Earth and our celestial neighborhood. Threat level: Trump's proposed cuts could lead to 13,975 job losses, $1.4 billion less in science spending for California and $3.9 billion of lost economic activity. By the numbers: NASA supported 33,600 jobs in California and generated $8.3 billion per year in economic output between fiscal years 2022-2024, per a recent report. Zoom in: Missions on the chopping block include the Mars Sample Return, an ambitious joint American-European plan to collect Martian soil samples and bring them to Earth for further study. Nearly 20 active science missions would be canceled in total, representing more than $12 billion in sunk taxpayer costs, per the Planetary Society. Zoom out: Besides California, Maryland ($2 billion) and Texas ($614 million) saw the most average annual NASA science spending across fiscal 2022-24, the data shows. The big picture: Trump's proposed NASA cuts fit into a broader pattern of pulling resources away from scientific endeavors and data collection, especially involving climate change.
