The U.S. government proposes to cut NASA’s $6 billion budget next year to make the agency’s cornerstone of its lunar plan and its ambitious plans to return rock samples from Mars.
President Donald Trump released the so-called thin budget on Friday outlining proposed funding for NASA’s fiscal 2026. The proposed budget emphasizes the government’s goal of returning to the moon in front of China and sending a man to Mars. So it will phase out NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rockets and its Orion capsules, replace them with commercial alternatives, and terminate the agency’s Lunar Gateway, a space station in a studio that will be the first person to orbit the moon. The budget will also cut NASA’s Mars sample return to “end unbearable missions.”
NASA takes up a lot of calories because of its huge, fully consumed moon rockets, pouring billions into the SLS without admitting it would be ultimately unbearable. The 575,000-pound rocket was built using components from NASA’s Space Shuttle program, which was planned from 1981 to 2011. It’s a capable heavy rocket, and unfortunately it’s already costing a fortune. The budget for SLS has exceeded $6 billion, and each SLS Rocket is expected to cost $144 million more than expected. This will increase the total cost of a single Artemis to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released by the Office of the Inspector General in May.
Trump’s close ally Rocket billionaire Elon Musk expressed opposition to the use of SLS for the upcoming Artemis mission, criticizing the concept for its complete lack of repeatability. Trump’s NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman is also not a fan of SLS, which he calls “very expensive.”
“The budget provides a plan for a plan to replace SLS and Orion flights to the moon with a more cost-effective commercial system to support more ambitious follow-up lunar missions,” the budget proposal reads. The closest rocket to a suitable job is SpaceX’s Starship.
Orion Capsules completed their eggless journey to the moon in November 2022 and are expected to carry a crew member for Artemis 2 in April 2026. Despite some problems with the capsule’s heat shield and hatchery, it performed well on its first trip. However, the budget proposal suggests that Orion will be replaced after Artemis 3.
Although Artemis was the first term to return humanity to the moon for the first time since Apollo, the plan was broken up by the administration’s first proposed budget. Another possible sacrifice of the Artemis program is the Lunar Gateway, a space station designed to support the moon and ongoing missions through scientific research.
The proposed budget cuts by 24% in 2025 from NASA’s current $24.8 billion budget. Most of the Space Agency’s plans will cut budgets, except for NASA’s human space exploration budget, which receives an additional $647 million compared to the 2025 budget, and the government remains very focused on returning to the moon and landing on Mars on Mars Mars on Mars Mars Mars on Mars Mars. Trump’s administration allocated more than $7 billion for lunar exploration and provided $1 billion in new investment for plans focused on Mars.
NASA’s meticulous plan to return carefully planned Red Planet samples, Mars Sample Return (MSR) is not lucky. The budget proposal calls the mission “a large amount of excess commerce, whose goals will be achieved by human missionary.” NASA has been working to figure out a way to make MSR work, but the mission suffers from cost overruns and delays in scheduling. The mission initially had a budget cap of $7 billion to return samples in the 2030s. However, it was later revealed that the MSR would need a budget of $11 billion and the sample would be returned by 2040. In view of the 2023 report, NASA has begun to consider another building for its complex mission, but the agency has not yet proposed a solid plan for MSR.
The budget also recommends reducing the crew on the International Space Station (ISS) before its planned retirement in 2030, when it is expected to be replaced by commercial space stations, and may even be replaced by multiple commercial space stations. “Flights from crew and cargo to the station will be greatly reduced,” the budget proposal reads. “The reduction in the station’s research capabilities will focus on efforts that are crucial to the moon and Mars exploration plans.”
NASA has been expecting a significant budget cut under Trump’s leadership, and the proposed allocation of funds has caused many of the agency’s key programs to waste years of research and funding on the cutting board and opt for commercial alternatives.
