An astrophysicist from the Northeast University calls the strongest reduction of a single year in the NASA budget a “strategic error” which, if adopted, could reach a scientific and economic future in America.
President Donald Trump proposed the largest reduction from one year to the other to the NASA budget in his 2026 budget proposal, essentially putting the end of many most promising missions in the space agency.
Budget demand reduces total NASA funding by almost 25% – $ 24.9 billion to $ 18.8 billion. Most cuts are made by eliminating a large part of the agency’s scientific programs.
The proposed reduction of 47% of the scientific financing of NASA would kill about a third of the scientific missions of NASA, including one designed to study ApophisThe massive asteroid that will pass extremely near the earth in 2029. This would also make NASA’s ability to study our own planet: the financing of earth sciences would drop by 53%. A third of NASA’s workforce would also be dismissed.
The White House management and budget office said in its budget request that NASA’s current expenditure levels in scientific missions – more than $ 7 billion – are “unsustainable” and that a budget of $ 3.9 billion would be able to support a “leaner and more targeted scientific program”.
The proposal to seriously reduce the NASA budget still has to go through the congress. However, if it has passed, it could end up costing the United States in the long term, says Jacqueline McClearyDeputy Professor of Physics at the Northeastern University.
“This means that many civil servants lose their work and that many scientific and engineers in our country, the best trained people we have, no longer work for the federal government and no longer work for the American people,” said McCleary. “This type of non -profit exploratory work will not be taken up by the private industry.”
McCleary calls for budget cuts a “strategic error” which would serve the ability to have the ability of America to maintain its position as a leader In technological and spatial exploration. Some of the most important technologies of the last century have left NASA missions.
“The most famous example is the miniaturization of electronics and the computing power that took place to support the space race,” explains McCleary. “Technological developments like this continue, and they can take years, even decades, to flow into the wider economy.”
McCleary also stresses that NASA scientific financing is not only done for its missions and employees. This money will also support subsidies to research institutions that allow the next generation of innovators “to learn the research skills they can integrate into the academic world or, more often, in the industry”, explains McCleary.
The cuts would also have an impact on the many projects that NASA leads which have direct links with what is happening on Earth.
Satellites supported by NASA are what helps meteorologists to monitor and predict weather conditions, climate change and even forest fires. Numerous NASA heliophysics projects are also on blocking, projects that are not only designed to provide a better understanding of the sun, explains McCleary. By giving scientists an overview of space weather conditions and atmospheric conditions, these projects are also essential to protect communications and national security assets such as satellites and the electrical network, says McCleary.
At the financial level, budget cuts on this scale could, ironically, 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, you need resources,” explains McCleary. “You cannot just lock the doors and (let) she sit in a warehouse forever. Sudden cuts like these are paradoxically very wasted with taxpayers’ money because they are not controlled.”
Although the media threshing around space race has been spent for a long time, NASA has a symbolic weight – and the level of public support –– which exceeds far almost all other government agencies. The mission and stature of NASA are with persistent and potentially more important leaves now than ever, says McCleary.
“To explore the cosmos, to learn more about the world around us, to know more about the sun, to push the boundaries of human ignorance, it is something noble,” explains McCleary. “It’s something that unites people in general.”
“(NASA) transcends political parties, state lines, even the national lines,” adds McCleary. This is the only federal agency so appreciated that its logo is a fashion declaration.