Defunding NASA by Trump could be disastrous

NASA faces severe challenges with Trump's budget cuts; potential loss of missions and jobs threatens U.S. space progress.

: The proposed 24 percent budget cut to NASA by President Trump represents a severe threat to its operations. This reduction could terminate 55 missions, severely impacting scientific research and exploration initiatives. It could also result in NASA's smallest workforce in 70 years, undermining its capacity for scientific and exploratory work. Efforts by lawmakers to maintain NASA's budget face challenges, highlighting the struggle between scientific priorities and fiscal policy.

President Trump's proposal to slash NASA's budget by 24% introduces a potential crisis for the agency, jeopardizing its scientific and exploratory missions. Casey Dreier, chief space policy advocate at The Planetary Society, warns that such cuts could lead to the loss of 55 active or planned missions, significantly diminishing NASA's scientific capabilities. This reduction would mark NASA's operating budget as the smallest since 1961, adjusting for inflation.

The proposed cuts hold significant ripple effects, potentially eviscerating NASA's science budget, effectively halving it. Bethany Ehlmann, Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech, emphasizes the national job impact of NASA, noting that for every NASA job, 16 private sector jobs are sustained. This issue highlights the potential long-term economic consequences of such budget reductions for communities across the United States.

Among the missions at risk is the New Horizons probe, key in exploring the Kuiper Belt, and OSIRIS-APEX, pivotal in asteroid research. The cessation of these programs would mean losing groundbreaking insights into our solar system's outer regions. Dreier critiques this potential loss of unique scientific endeavors, arguing that, "there's no historical precedent to this level of single-year, functionally indiscriminate and dramatic cuts."

While congressional committees push back on these proposed financial restrictions, contrasting legislative approaches in the House and Senate create ambiguity over NASA's future budget. The Senate maintains the agency's science budget at $7.3 billion, whereas the House version suggests an 18% reduction to $6 billion. Politicians now confront aligning these differences, essential to preserving the integrity and scope of NASA's mission.

Sources: Engadget, Planetary Society, Bloomberg, Politico, Pew Research, NASA

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