The Trump Administration has proposed cutting NASA’s budget by 32%, earning it the nickname of “the Skinny Budget”.
The President’s Budget Request (PBR) for the fiscal year to end-September 2026 is US$18.8 billion, a cut of US$6.1 billion from NASA’s US$24.9 billion budget for the previous year.
The administration has also set out new priorities for NASA that will see the space agency’s science and lunar programmes severely cut.
The winners
Human space
Only one, out of nine, space departments saw an increase in funding: human space exploration. Ostensibly “Legacy Human Exploration Systems” was separated as its own programme – and saw its funding reduced.
With an additional US$1 billion to be spent on a human Mars landing effort and US$7 billion on lunar exploration, the message from the US government is clear in the budget: “The Budget refocuses NASA on beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars.”
A screenshot from the President’s Budget Request (PBR). Courtesy: The White House
Military space
Spending for the US Department of Defence will go up by US$113 billion. For military space, research programmes on hypersonic missile technology will continue to receive strong support. This is because these will support the development of the Golden Dome project: a ballistic and hypersonic missile defence system for the US.
SpaceX Starship-based Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA. Courtesy: NASA
The losers
Artemis Human landing missions
One of the major proposed cuts is to the Artemis programme’s plan for human landings using the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule.
These will be limited to just two more Artemis missions: the Artemis 2 crewed mission, which will fly around the Moon next year, followed by just one landing attempt with Artemis 3, in 2028 – if it is not delayed further. More delays seem likely given that the HLS (Human Landing System), developed by SpaceX and based on Starship, is also behind the time curve in its development.
Launch director Madison Tuttle looks at the SLS roll past her window. Courtesy: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Moon landings are complicated, and any single one could be scrubbed for a number of reasons. Thus, NASA lined up multiple Apollo lunar landing missions during the first space race to increase the likelihood of at least one success. In the new space race with China, however, there is a chance that the US does not make an Artemis Moon landing because of the single opportunity.
The reason for cutting back Artemis missions is not difficult to see. SLS is known to be extremely expensive to fly. The budget cites the cost of a single SLS launch as US$4 billion. This is slightly misleading as most of the costs of the rocket have been sunk and the actual variable cost is probably closer to something between $876 million and $2 billion a flight.
In contrast, commercial entities such as SpaceX are targeting much lower launch costs. Elon Musk hopes that a single launch of his Super Heavy/Starship, a heavy-lift launch vehicle, will eventually cost just $10 million. Whether he can achieve this remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the scales of economy between these projected and estimated figures is vast. Another factor is that while the SLS is human-rated and ready to launch, the Super Heavy/Starship is not (a certification effort would take time) and has yet to even fly to orbit successfully.
China, in the meantime, is offering a simpler architecture for its initial human lunar landing attempts due in 2029. Its plan involves a smaller lunar landing craft and a transfer stage that does not require refuelling. Both are thought to use storable propellants rather than the cryogenic ones employed by Starship.
Chinese human-carrying lunar lander concept plus rover. Courtesy: CNSA
International projects: Lunar Gateway space station and the ISS
Despite an international yearning for greater space collaboration, the budget proposal includes axing the Lunar Gateway project, an international space station designed to orbit the Moon and support future Artemis missions. Gateway has long been held as an emblem of NASA’s multinational cooperation: Europe, Japan, Canada and the UAE are all contributing to its development. There may be concerns among these nations about the termination of the programme, but they are yet to issue a formal comment, except to note that there will be future consultations.
While the cis-lunar economy looked to be about to explode into life, the lack of commitment to the Lunar Gateway station may cause a withdrawal of international investment in lunar projects.
NASA’s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), both financially and in terms of crew sizes, is to be wound down faster than originally envisaged, ahead of the retirement of the ISS in 2030.
Mars Sample Return and other science missions
NASA’s Space and Earth Science programmes are significantly affected with proposed cuts of 47% – equivalent to about US$3.4 billion. This would include the slashing of several Earth climate monitoring satellite programmes and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – a plan for a broad wavelength optical successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The budget has also singled out the controversial Mars Sample Return mission for cancellation. It justified the move by pointing out that the project is over budget, very late (samples are scheduled to return in the 2030s) and unnecessary if it can launch a human mission to Mars. The Trump Administration has received criticism, including from The Planetary Society which warned of the damage the cuts would inflict.
STEM outreach work cut
Courtesy: The White House
NASA’s engagement programmes, which encourage children to study STEM subjects in schools, lost US$143 million. The reason cited in the budget was that “NASA will inspire the next generation of explorers through exciting, ambitious space missions, not through subsidizing woke STEM programming and research that prioritizes some groups of students over others and have had minimal impact on the aerospace workforce”.
