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The proposed NASA budget cuts would decimate American science, an expert says

President Donald Trump has proposed the single largest year-over-year cut to NASA's budget in his 2026 budget proposal, essentially terminating many of the space agency's most promising missions.

The budget request slashes NASA total funding by nearly 25%—from $24.9 billion to $18.8 billion. Most of the cuts are made by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science programs.

The proposed 47% reduction in NASA's science funding would kill about a third of NASA's science missions, including one designed to study , the massive asteroid that will pass extremely close to Earth in 2029. It would also stunt NASA's ability to study our own planet: Earth science funding would drop by 53%. One-third of NASA's workforce would be laid off as well.

The White House Office of Management and Budget claimed in its budget request that NASA's current spending levels on science missions—more than $7 billion—are "unsustainable" and that a $3.9 billion budget would be able to support a "leaner, more focused Science program."

The proposal to severely slash NASA's budget still needs to pass through Congress. However, if passed, it could end up costing the U.S. more in the long run, says Jacqueline McCleary, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University.

"It means a lot of civil servants lose their work and a lot of our country's science and engineering workforce, the best trained people that we have, no longer work for the federal government and no longer work for the American people," McCleary says. "This sort of not-for-profit driven exploratory work is not going to get picked up by private industry."

McCleary calls the budget cuts a "strategic mistake" that would hamstring America's ability to maintain its position as a leader in tech and space exploration. Some of the most important technologies of the last century came out of NASA missions.

"The most famous example is the miniaturization of electronics and computing power that took place to support the space race," McCleary says. "Technological developments like that continue, and they may take years or even decades to trickle out into the larger economy."

McCleary also points out that NASA's science funding doesn't just go toward its missions and employees. That money also goes toward supporting grants to research institutions that allow the next generation of innovators to "learn the research skills that they can carry into academia or, more often, into industry," McCleary explains.

The cuts would also impact the many projects NASA conducts that have direct ties to what's happening on Earth.

Satellites supported by NASA are what help meteorologists monitor and predict weather patterns, climate change and even forest fires. Many of NASA's heliophysics projects are also on the chopping block, projects that are not just designed to provide a better understanding of the sun, McCleary explains. By giving scientists insight into space weather and atmospheric conditions, these projects are also key to protecting communications and national security assets like satellites and the electrical grid, McCleary says.

On a financial level, budget cuts at this scale could, ironically, also end up costing the government—and taxpayers—more, she adds.

"Even if you want to dismantle a project or dismantle a satellite, it takes time, it takes resources," McCleary says. "You can't just lock the doors and [let] it sit in a warehouse forever. Sudden cuts like these are paradoxically very wasteful of taxpayer money because they're not controlled."

Although the hype around the space race has long since passed, NASA has a symbolic weight—and level of —that far exceeds almost any other government agency. NASA's mission and stature are evergreen and potentially more important now than ever, McCleary says.

"To explore the cosmos, to learn more about the world around us, to learn more about the sun, to push back the frontiers of human ignorance, this is something noble," McCleary says. "This is something that unites people in general."

"[NASA] transcends political parties, state lines, even national lines," McCleary adds." It's the only federal agency so beloved that its logo is a fashion statement. No one's wearing USDA sweatshirts. People wear NASA sweatshirts. Why? Because people love the exploration and scientific endeavor that NASA represents. It inspires hope in a way that many other scientific endeavors don't."