--- title: "Trump’s Budget for NASA Is Absolutely Horrifying" description: "Earlier this year, the Trump administration revealed its proposed budget for NASA's fiscal year 2025, indicating brutal cuts of unprecedented proportions were coming. Now, the agency has released new data about the proposed budget, painting a dire picture of its future. As SpaceNews reports, the document reveals that thousands of jobs would be cut, and dozens of science missions would be on the chopping block. The cuts, the deepest year-over-year change since 1961, when adjusted for inflation, would cut roughly one-third of all civil servants — devastating layoffs brushed off as \"workforce impacts\" in the document. The budget would also […]" date: "2025-06-03" modified: "2025-06-03" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying" categories: - "Future Society" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "NASA" - "SpaceX" --- # Trump’s Budget for NASA Is Absolutely Horrifying ![]() *\Image: Futurism\* 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]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()