WASHINGTON \u2014 NASA\u2019s planetary science program, while spared steep cuts proposed last year, is still facing a funding shortfall that requires \u201cstrategic choices\u201d about which missions to continue.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a town hall during the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on March 16, Louise Prockter, director of NASA\u2019s planetary science division, said funding for fiscal year 2026 is about $200 million below what her division received in 2025.<\/p>\n
An appropriations bill passed in January<\/a> provided the planetary science division with $2.54 billion in 2026. While that was much higher than the administration\u2019s original proposal of $1.89 billion, it is less than the $2.72 billion the division received in both fiscal years 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t continue everything from the past,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are about $200 million below where we were last year, and that means that not everything can continue forward or continue forward in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n That will mean what she called \u201csome hard strategic choices\u201d about which programs to alter or terminate. Those decisions will be articulated in an operating plan for fiscal year 2026 that NASA is developing and will send to Congress in the near future.<\/p>\n With that plan still in development, Prockter did not go into details about missions that might be in jeopardy. She suggested, though, that one area could be missions to Venus. NASA selected two Venus missions, DAVINCI and VERITAS<\/a>, as part of its Discovery program in 2021, but both have suffered delays. NASA is also providing an instrument for EnVision, a European Space Agency mission to Venus.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is going to be a challenge to get all three Venus missions to continue,\u201d she said. The 2026 appropriations bill, she noted, included $99 million to continue DAVINCI while work is \u201cramping up slowly\u201d on VERITAS and discussions continue with ESA on EnVision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing our best by Venus, but it is a tough environment and not everything can move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n There is also some uncertainty about extended missions, those that have completed their prime science missions but continue to operate. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been approved for another three years, but the agency has not made decisions on other extended missions, including several at Mars.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, we do anticipate that they\u2019re likely to go forward,\u201d she said of the other extended missions, but they may receive only one-year extensions because of budget uncertainty.<\/p>\n Further complicating matters is the status of one of those extended Mars missions, the MAVEN orbiter. NASA lost contact with MAVEN in early December and has yet to restore communications, with limited telemetry suggesting the spacecraft is spinning and not in its planned orbit. Prockter said in mid-January it was \u201cvery unlikely\u201d NASA would be able to recover the spacecraft.<\/a><\/p>\n At the town hall, she provided few updates about MAVEN beyond noting that NASA has convened an anomaly review board to assess what went wrong and the likelihood of recovery. She did not say how long NASA would continue recovery efforts before declaring the mission over.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t officially said MAVEN is lost yet,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re still looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n