Will Federal Budget Cuts Affect Space Science?

Short Wave

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🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Earlier this year, the White House proposed a nearly 24% cut to NASA's 2026 fiscal year budget — the largest in the agency's history. The trims are largely aimed at the NASA's fundamental science research and would halt science that has already been partially paid for, like the Mars sample return and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Many scientists and policy experts are also worried that the reduced funding would cause a scientific brain drain. But within the last month, Congress has started to discuss appropriations packages that may not severely contract the budget after all. So, in this episode, Regina reports on the important hypotheticals: What programs might be affected? Are these cuts likely to happen? If so, when?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Curiosity Weekly.
0:02.6	Science isn't just in the lab.
0:04.5	It's in the voices of people expanding what counts as science
0:08.0	and opening up whose science is really for.
0:11.0	Listen to Curiosity Weekly, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:15.5	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:20.7	Hi, Shortwavers, Emily Kwong here.
0:22.9	The Trump administration has made many, many cuts to the federal government, and they're not done yet.
0:29.0	The White House's Office of Management and Budget proposed a 24% cut to NASA funding in fiscal year 2026.
0:36.8	My co-host, Regina Barber, has been looking into what's going on at NASA.
0:40.6	Hey, Gina.
0:41.4	Hey, M.
0:42.1	Okay, so first we should say that these cuts are somewhat in line with the cuts to science and industry at other agencies like FEMA, HHS, etc.
0:50.5	And we've covered all that in past episodes of shortwave.
0:54.4	NASA's not being singled out for cuts. It's part of the overall Trump administration movement to reduce this federal budget.
1:05.1	That's John Logsden. He's a policy analyst and a former member of the NASA Advisory Council.
1:10.2	With that said, when I first heard
1:11.9	about this proposed budget, I really wanted to know which programs might get cut, what research
1:16.6	might be impacted. Yeah. So in my hunt for answers, I reached out to Dara Norman. She's an
1:21.3	astronomer and the president of the American Astronomical Society. I think this is unprecedented
1:26.2	in the amount of cutting that NASA has ever seen.
1:31.1	Oh, wow. Yeah. I also spoke with the assistant director of science policy and government relations at the American Geophysical Union, and her name is Brittany Webster.
	...

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