{"id":770446,"date":"2026-05-03T13:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/770446\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:04:19","slug":"nasa-brought-crashing-down-to-earth-as-budget-threat-follows-lunar-success-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/770446\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasa brought crashing down to earth as budget threat follows lunar success | Nasa"},"content":{"rendered":"

It should have been a victory lap for Jared Isaacman. The Nasa administrator was in Washington DC for what he surely hoped would be a celebration with lawmakers and the US president, little more than two weeks after the successful conclusion<\/a> of the first human journey around the moon in more than half a century.<\/p>\n

Instead, last week began with some difficult questions in Congress about the Trump administration\u2019s unpopular plan to slash the space agency\u2019s budget. It ended at the White House with the president appearing to poke fun at his prominent ears<\/a>, watched by four bemused Artemis II astronauts<\/a> waiting in vain for any question about their historic mission.<\/p>\n

There could have been no better illustration of how Donald Trump<\/a> has tarnished the aftermath of Nasa\u2019s greatest moment in five decades, and is singularly focused on dismantling the agency\u2019s science programs even as he urges it to plant a Stars and Stripes flag back on the moon before he leaves office in January 2029. At least part of Trump\u2019s hostility to Nasa\u2019s science programs appears to stem from his animus towards the agency\u2019s role in climate research.<\/p>\n

Yet, even as Trump tries for the second time in two years to slash almost a quarter of the Nasa<\/a> budget, he finds himself opposed by a powerful and united space community determined not to let him dictate the Artemis legacy.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, in an act of deep disobedience, the Republican-led House commerce, justice, and science subcommittee snubbed Trump\u2019s 2027 $18.8bn budget request for Nasa \u2013 a 23% cut on 2026 funding \u2013 and advanced its own $24.4bn plan<\/a> that would keep alive the science projects the president is looking to kill.<\/p>\n

It came after Isaacman himself appeared before House and Senate committees last week to defend the Trump proposal, insisting that Nasa can do more with less, including building its hugely ambitious $20bn moonbase<\/a> by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cNasa\u2019s successful Artemis II mission around the moon was an inspiring reminder that we must remain ahead of global competition \u2013 and that same vision is reflected throughout this bill,\u201d Hal Rogers, the Kentucky congressman and committee chair, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

In the Senate, the Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen, ranking member of the chamber\u2019s science appropriations subcommittee, told Isaacman he had similar concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in this room knows that without space science, there is no space exploration. Without space science, there is no new planetary discovery. Without space science, there is no Nasa,\u201d Van Hollen said.<\/p>\n

Those fighting outside Congress to save Nasa\u2019s budget are encouraged by the lawmakers\u2019 resistance, and confident that ultimately Trump\u2019s proposal, including a 46% cut for science, will fall, following the same fate<\/a> as his near-identical 2026 request did in January.<\/p>\n

They are, however, dismayed to have to be fighting the same battle again so soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be won again, because, respectfully, members of Congress and the Senate have no time for this,\u201d said Bill Nye, television\u2019s \u201cScience Guy\u201d, and chief ambassador for the Planetary Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expression they use is this budget is dead on arrival. But I will say, as a taxpayer and voter, let alone space advocate, it\u2019s inefficient to have the office of management and budget (OMB) proposing to cut Nasa by over a fifth, and cut science by almost half, and then everybody has to push back and reconfigure. It\u2019s just a waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, and the Artemis II crew attend a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Photograph: Graeme Sloan\/EPA<\/p>\n

Nye, and the Planetary Society, have resurrected their online Save Nasa Science<\/a> campaign, and say the administration\u2019s argument that resources need to be cut from science missions to help fund human spaceflight, and beat China back to the moon<\/a>, is bogus.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t fly humans without knowing the topography of the moon, and the subtle gravitational variations in the moon, and you want to know what the regolith is made of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has happened historically is robots go first. The Surveyor spacecraft<\/a> landed on the moon to make sure that a human landing craft would not sink into the dust. If somebody ever goes to Mars, the same will be true. The robots go first.<\/p>\n

double quotation mark<\/p>\n

If this funding trajectory is not reversed, Nasa\u2019s Mars programs will face severe and irreversible harm<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bill Nye<\/p>\n

\u201cMany more discoveries are made per dollar, per euro, per yuan, in robotic exploration than human space flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other experts agree that getting to Mars, the ultimate goal of the Artemis program that Trump has claimed as his own (despite significant advances occurring during the Biden administration), will be nearly impossible if his cuts are enacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this funding trajectory is not reversed, Nasa\u2019s Mars programs will face severe and irreversible harm, jeopardizing the US\u2019 ability to land spacecraft on the surface of Mars, not just in the near future, but for decades to come,\u201d four Democratic senators<\/a>, including the former space shuttle and international space station astronaut Mark Kelly, wrote to Van Hollen and the Kansas Republican Jerry Moran, the Senate subcommittee\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n

Don Platt, head of aerospace, physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology, and a former Nasa engineer and manager, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do expect further backlash this year in Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cNasa has a broad level of support, and made a good decision when Nasa facilities were established around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means many regions are concerned with Nasa\u2019s budget. Cuts will damage the nation\u2019s ability to lead in science. There\u2019s still a great deal about Mars, and even the space weather environment on the way to and from Mars, to be learned before we can safely do a human Mars mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platt\u2019s point about nationwide support for Nasa resonated with Nye, who said the country\u2019s desire to see its space agency not only succeed, but lead the world in scientific and spaceflight achievements, transcended politics.<\/p>\n

double quotation mark<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t be a leader in human spaceflight if you\u2019re not a leader in science<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bill Nye<\/p>\n

\u201cStates that are very conservative, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, these have tremendous space interest \u2026 we launch rockets from Florida,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, by long tradition, you have California Technical Institute, and the applied physics lab, which is part of Johns Hopkins, in states that had senators that really supported this kind of investment. So those are blue states that are very invested in Nasa, and then there are red states that are very invested in Nasa.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody supports Nasa, and I like to say Nasa is the best brand the US has. [But] you can\u2019t be a leader in human spaceflight if you\u2019re not a leader in science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman, Nye said, was \u201cplaying the hand he was dealt\u201d by trying to defend the cuts to \u201can audience of one\u201d: Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s got to manage this, he\u2019s got to manage getting humans to the moon and back, and he\u2019s got to manage the budget cuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ll just tell you objectively, cutting science is not in the United States\u2019 best interest. While we\u2019re all sitting here, China is going hard and fast and doing extraordinary things, and they\u2019re going to land people on the moon in 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t say we are just sitting on our hands, but we are fighting these kooky budget battles over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It should have been a victory lap for Jared Isaacman. The Nasa administrator was in Washington DC for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":770447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-770446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116510790110986260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}