NASA in danger: here are the cuts in the budget submitted by Donald Trump

The Directorate of Scientific Missions which manages planetary science programs, earth sciences and astrophysics research would be particularly targeted with a 50 % reduction in its funding. The envelope received was $ 7.5 billion in 2025 and the Trump administration offers 3.9 billion for next year.

Budget cuts weigh on NASA

The documents transmitted to NASA officials detail these reductions: astrophysics would lose two thirds to fall to $ 487 million, the heliophysics would lose more than two -thirds of its budget reduced to $ 455 million, earth sciences would see their funding drop by more than 50 % to increase to 1.033 billion dollars and the planetary sciences would lose 30 % of their resources $ 1.929 billion envelope.

The budget would continue to support the missions in progress such as the Hubble and James Webb telescopes but the Nancy Grace Roman telescope would be sacrificed. “The Passback supports the continuation of the operations of the Hubble and James Webb telescopes and assumes that no funding is provided for other telescopes”specifies the document.

Among the other cups, the cessation of financing of the Mars Sample Return mission and the Davinci mission to Venus. The goal would be to close the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where NASA employs 10,000 civil servants and contractuals.

Experts in scientific policy have been alarmed and qualify these cuts as“Extinction event” As for the gem of the space agency. Most major advances in NASA in the past 25 years is the result of these scientific programs.

This is the first burst of the federal budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The budget is drawn up by the White House management and budget office, under the direction of Russell Vought, which has long displayed its anti-scientific positions through its Center for Renewing America.

Jared Isaacman, candidate of the Trump administration to lead NASA, expressed the fact that Martian missions are a priority for the space agency. It is unlikely that he participated in these budget cuts.

Upon receipt of the document, NASA has 72 hours to examine it and submit an appeal. Any modification is then added to a final document. Congress may be firmly opposed to certain cuts:

After receiving the Passback documents, NASA usually has 72 hours to examine the documents and submit appeals. Any modification is then incorporated into a final document which becomes “the president's budgetary request” for the next fiscal year.

The congress should firmly oppose some of these cuts. “This massive cup in the NASA scientific program will not hold”said the US representative George Whitesides, a Democrat of California. “For weeks, we have sounded the alarm concerning a rumor of the 50 % cup in the leading scientific efforts of NASA. Now, we know that it is true. I will work alongside my colleagues from the Science Commission to make it clear how it would decimate American leadership in space and cause great damage to NASA centers.”

There remains an unknown: if the budgetary process is delayed, the White House could force agencies to establish operational plans based on the budgetary demand of the elected president when the new financial year has started. The process “Impoundment” would allow officials of the Trump administration to transform budgetary demand into a real budget.