Latest news with #MarsSampleReturn
Axios
13 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
The states where NASA spends the most money on science
NASA spends hundreds of millions of dollars per state on average annually through its scientific missions, a recent analysis shows. Why it matters: The space agency's science efforts bear the brunt of the cuts in the Trump administration's proposed budget, down nearly 50% to $3.9 billion. The big picture: Science represents about 30% of NASA's overall budget and includes 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. By the numbers: California (About $3 billion), Maryland ($2 billion), Texas ($614 million), Virginia ($612 million) and Alabama ($586 million) saw the most NASA science spending on average annually across fiscal 2022-2024, per data from The Planetary Society, a pro-space nonprofit. Each is home to major NASA facilities, such as California's Ames Research Center and Maryland's Goddard Space Flight Center, which houses the NASA Center for Climate Simulation providing supercomputing resources for climate modeling. The numbers represent obligations involving "research grants, contracts and cooperative agreements," the group says. Zoom in: Missions on the chopping block in Trump's NASA budget include the New Horizons spacecraft (first launched to study Pluto and now in the outer solar system) and Mars Sample Return, an ambitious joint American-European plan to collect Martian soil samples gathered by the Perseverance rover and bring them to Earth for further study. Nearly 20 active science missions would be canceled in total, the Planetary Society says, representing more than $12 billion in taxpayer investments. What they're saying: A chief concern, Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier tells Axios, is that already paid-for probes and telescopes would be deactivated even though they're still delivering valuable data, wasting taxpayer dollars already spent to launch and run them. "This is the part where you get pennies on the dollar return," Dreier says. "They keep returning great science for the very fractional cost to keep the lights on. And a lot of these will just be turned off and left to tumble in space." Between the lines: Trump's proposed NASA science cuts fit into a broader pattern of pulling resources away from scientific endeavors and data collection, especially involving climate change. The White House has also proposed major cuts and culled staff at agencies like NOAA, and is pulling federal funding for climate-related research.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dozens of NASA space missions could be axed under Trump's budget: Here's a look at 6
Dozens of NASA's missions to explore the cosmos could be in jeopardy under a budget proposal from the White House. President Donald Trump's administration, which released an initial budget proposal May 2 for the U.S. space agency, dropped more details Friday, May 30 about just which NASA programs it looks to cancel. All told, the budget request for the next fiscal year proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% – from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion – mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Trump's proposal, which would need congressional approval, has been lauded by acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro for "still prioritizing critical science and technology research," she said in a statement. But in its own statement, the Planetary Society called the proposed budget "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science." A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space exploration advocacy organization. Many of the science missions Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. For years, NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has sought to bring back a collection of rocks that could reveal details about potential past life on the Red Planet. The agency's Perseverance rover has been scooping up and storing intriguing rock samples since it first landed in 2021 in the Jezero Crater. But ballooning costs and mission delays have hampered both NASA and the European Space Agency in executing a plan to actually retrieve and transport the samples to Earth for scientists to study further. Meanwhile, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN are two spacecrafts that have been orbiting Mars for years. While those missions could be eliminated, Trump looks to inject another $1 billion to tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars exploration. That includes establishing a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet. The New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close when it flew by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. In 2019, the space probe reached the Kuiper belt – a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – where it continues to make discoveries about the outer solar system. The Juno probe, meanwhile, continues to reveal new insights into the gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian moons nine years after arriving in 2016. The spacecraft recently relayed data unmasking the harsh environments of both Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule – both seen as centerpieces in the effort to return Americans to the moon – may have their days numbered. The SLS and Orion, which have both launched just once on an uncrewed mission in 2022 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, are due to play a role in NASA's lunar ambitions under the Artemis campaign. But Trump seeks to phase out both the SLS and the Orion after just two more missions. That means Artemis II astronauts would still ride an Orion capsule around the moon following liftoff using the SLS rocket as early as 2026. NASA's plans also call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board a SpaceX Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface as early as 2027. Four years ago, NASA selected two missions to Venus under its Discovery program, focused on developing spaceflights to study our solar system. DAVINCI is a planned mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for an orbiter and atmospheric descent probe to reach Venus. Its counterpart, VERITAS, is another upcoming mission to map the surface of the planet in high resolution that would be managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Both spacecraft would have been the first NASA vehicles to explore Venus since the 1990s. NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September 2023, had been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a path that would allow it to meet up with an infamous asteroid in 2029. That asteroid is name Apophis, and it initially posed a sizable threat to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 before scientists eventually calculated that its trajectory was harmless. OSIRIS-APEX was meant to spend 18 months mapping the asteroid's surface and analyzing its chemical makeup during a rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029 after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth. Scientists had considered the mission an invaluable endeavor to allow NASA and other space agency's to build up planetary defense capabilities if a space rock ever posed a threat. The Chandra X-ray Observatory has spent more than 25 years detecting exotic environments in the cosmos to help astronomers understand the structure and evolution of the universe. The space telescope, which launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, continues to provide data allowing scientists to make new cosmic discoveries. While the observatory is targeted under Trump's budget proposal, other famous space telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope would remain in operation. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Rick Neale, USA TODAY Network Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's budget targets dozens of NASA space missions: Here's a look
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump looks to axe many NASA space missions that launched from Florida: Here's a look at 6
Dozens of NASA's missions to explore the cosmos could be in jeopardy under a budget proposal from the White House. President Donald Trump's administration, which released an initial budget proposal May 2 for the U.S. space agency, dropped more details Friday, May 30, about just which NASA programs it looks to cancel. All told, the budget request for the next fiscal year proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% – from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion – mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Trump's proposal, which would need congressional approval, has been lauded by acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro for "still prioritizing critical science and technology research," she said in a statement. But in its own statement, the Planetary Society called the proposed budget "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science." A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space exploration advocacy organization. Many of the science missions Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Many of the missions have launched or would get off the ground from Florida's Space Coast. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. For years, NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has sought to bring back a collection of rocks that could reveal details about potential past life on the Red Planet. The agency's Perseverance rover has been scooping up and storing intriguing rock samples since it first landed in 2021 in the Jezero Crater. But ballooning costs and mission delays have hampered both NASA and the European Space Agency in executing a plan to actually retrieve and transport the samples to Earth for scientists to study further. Meanwhile, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN are two spacecrafts that have been orbiting Mars for years. All three spacecraft – Perseverance and the two orbiters – launched on rockets from what is now called Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. While those missions could be eliminated, Trump looks to inject another $1 billion to tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars exploration. That includes establishing a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet. Launching in 2006 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base (now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,) the New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close when it flew by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. In 2019, the space probe reached the Kuiper belt – a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – where it continues to make discoveries about the outer solar system. The Juno probe, meanwhile, continues to reveal new insights into the gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian moons nine years after arriving in 2016. The spacecraft, which launched in August 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, recently relayed data unmasking the harsh environments of both Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule – both seen as centerpieces in the effort to return Americans to the moon – may have their days numbered. The SLS and Orion, which have both launched just once on an uncrewed mission in 2022 from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, are due to play a role in NASA's lunar ambitions under the Artemis campaign. But Trump seeks to phase out both the SLS and the Orion after just two more missions. That means Artemis II astronauts would still ride an Orion capsule around the moon following liftoff using the SLS rocket as early as 2026. NASA's plans also call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board a SpaceX Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface as early as 2027. Four years ago, NASA selected two missions to Venus under its Discovery program, focused on developing spaceflights to study our solar system. DAVINCI is a planned mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for an orbiter and atmospheric descent probe to reach Venus. Its counterpart, VERITAS, is another upcoming mission to map the surface of the planet in high resolution that would be managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Both spacecraft would have been the first NASA vehicles to explore Venus since the 1990s. Launched in 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September 2023, had been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a path that would allow it to meet up with an infamous asteroid in 2029. That asteroid is name Apophis, and it initially posed a sizable threat to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 before scientists eventually calculated that its trajectory was harmless. OSIRIS-APEX was meant to spend 18 months mapping the asteroid's surface and analyzing its chemical makeup during a rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029 after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth. Scientists had considered the mission an invaluable endeavor to allow NASA and other space agency's to build up planetary defense capabilities if a space rock ever posed a threat. The Chandra X-ray Observatory has spent more than 25 years detecting exotic environments in the cosmos to help astronomers understand the structure and evolution of the universe. The space telescope, which launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, continues to provide data allowing scientists to make new cosmic discoveries. While the observatory is targeted under Trump's budget proposal, other famous space telescopes like the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope would remain in operation. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Rick Neale, FLORIDA TODAY Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Trump's budget targets several NASA missions from Florida: What to know
USA Today
a day ago
- Business
- USA Today
Dozens of NASA space missions could be axed under Trump's budget: Here's a look at 6
Dozens of NASA space missions could be axed under Trump's budget: Here's a look at 6 The budget request proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Show Caption Hide Caption Trump calls Elon Musk a 'fantastic guy' amid drug use allegations President Trump said he didn't know about Elon Musk's alleged drug use and backed the billionaire's cost-cutting. A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society. Many of the science missions President Donald Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. Dozens of NASA's missions to explore the cosmos could be in jeopardy under a budget proposal from the White House. President Donald Trump's administration, which released an initial budget proposal May 2 for the U.S. space agency, dropped more details Friday, May 30 about just which NASA programs it looks to cancel. All told, the budget request for the next fiscal year proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% – from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion – mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Trump's proposal, which would need congressional approval, has been lauded by acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro for "still prioritizing critical science and technology research," she said in a statement. But in its own statement, the Planetary Society called the proposed budget "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science." A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space exploration advocacy organization. Many of the science missions Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. Mars missions: Mars Sample Return, orbiters For years, NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has sought to bring back a collection of rocks that could reveal details about potential past life on the Red Planet. The agency's Perseverance rover has been scooping up and storing intriguing rock samples since it first landed in 2021 in the Jezero Crater. But ballooning costs and mission delays have hampered both NASA and the European Space Agency in executing a plan to actually retrieve and transport the samples to Earth for scientists to study further. Meanwhile, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN are two spacecrafts that have been orbiting Mars for years. While those missions could be eliminated, Trump looks to inject another $1 billion to tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars exploration. That includes establishing a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet. Outer solar system: New Horizons, Juno The New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close when it flew by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. In 2019, the space probe reached the Kuiper belt – a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – where it continues to make discoveries about the outer solar system. The Juno probe, meanwhile, continues to reveal new insights into the gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian moons nine years after arriving in 2016. The spacecraft recently relayed data unmasking the harsh environments of both Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. Moon missions: Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule – both seen as centerpieces in the effort to return Americans to the moon – may have their days numbered. The SLS and Orion, which have both launched just once on an uncrewed mission in 2022 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, are due to play a role in NASA's lunar ambitions under the Artemis campaign. But Trump seeks to phase out both the SLS and the Orion after just two more missions. That means Artemis II astronauts would still ride an Orion capsule around the moon following liftoff using the SLS rocket as early as 2026. NASA's plans also call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board a SpaceX Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface as early as 2027. Venus missions: DAVINCI and VERITAS Four years ago, NASA selected two missions to Venus under its Discovery program, focused on developing spaceflights to study our solar system. DAVINCI is a planned mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for an orbiter and atmospheric descent probe to reach Venus. Its counterpart, VERITAS, is another upcoming mission to map the surface of the planet in high resolution that would be managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Both spacecraft would have been the first NASA vehicles to explore Venus since the 1990s. Planetary defense: OSIRIS-APEX NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September 2023, had been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a path that would allow it to meet up with an infamous asteroid in 2029. That asteroid is name Apophis, and it initially posed a sizable threat to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 before scientists eventually calculated that its trajectory was harmless. OSIRIS-APEX was meant to spend 18 months mapping the asteroid's surface and analyzing its chemical makeup during a rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029 after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth. Scientists had considered the mission an invaluable endeavor to allow NASA and other space agency's to build up planetary defense capabilities if a space rock ever posed a threat. Space telescope: Chandra X-Ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory has spent more than 25 years detecting exotic environments in the cosmos to help astronomers understand the structure and evolution of the universe. The space telescope, which launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, continues to provide data allowing scientists to make new cosmic discoveries. While the observatory is targeted under Trump's budget proposal, other famous space telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope would remain in operation. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Rick Neale, USA TODAY Network Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Budget for NASA Is Absolutely Horrifying
Earlier this year, the Trump administration revealed its proposed budget for NASA's fiscal year 2026, indicating brutal cuts of unprecedented proportions are coming. Now, the agency has released new data about the proposal, painting a dire picture of its future. As SpaceNews reports, the documents reveal that thousands of jobs would be cut, and dozens of science missions would be on the chopping block. The cuts — which would drag the budget to its lowest point since 1961, SpaceNews points out, when adjusted for inflation — would result in the firing of roughly one-third of all civil servants. The budget would also slash the space agency's science budget in almost half, "nothing short of an extinction-level event for space science and exploration in the United States," as Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier told Ars Technica in March. The extent of the proposed cuts is truly baffling, with the Trump administration basically looking to give up on space science altogether in favor of militarizing the Earth's orbit and sending humans to Mars. The so-called "skinny" budget would result in the cancellation of several key space exploration missions, including NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Other Earth observation programs would also be ripped up, including missions to monitor the planet's gravity field or study tropical cyclones, per SpaceNews. The budget would also cancel planned missions to explore the surface of Mars, as well as existing operations such as OSIRIS-APEX, which is headed to an asteroid called Apophis. While NASA's next major landmark space observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, wouldn't be entirely canceled, it would be allocated less than half of its previously outlined budget. Meanwhile, the space agency would be doubling down on establishing commercially funded ways to get to the Moon and Mars, highlighting the Trump administration's sometimes-cozy relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose space company is bound to reap the benefits. The budget would clear up north of $1 billion for projects connected to sending humans to the Red Planet, indicating the president is willing to closely follow Musk's lead. The proposed 2026 fiscal year budget is now headed to Congress, where it's likely to meet ample opposition. "No one is eager to cut NASA science," Dreier told SpaceNews. "No one is out there openly defending and saying that this is a great idea." In short, if it were to make it through Congress unaltered — which is unlikely, since the agency is supported by many lawmakers — Trump's NASA budget could deal the country's leadership in space an existential blow, allowing adversaries, most notably China, to race ahead. "It sends a signal that America is stepping back from leadership in virtually every science area, including NASA," former NASA associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld told PBS. "The proposal for the NASA science budget is, in fact, cataclysmic for US leadership in science." "What we see is a full-scale assault on science in America," representative George Whitesides (D-CA) added. "It is probably the biggest attack on our scientific establishment in history." "It's a poorly wielded chainsaw," he added. More on NASA's budget: NASA Disgusted by Elon Musk's Disrespect
