A new space telescope that is 87% paid for, on schedule, and on budget, could be completely canned if President Trump’s proposed budget makes it law for NASA. That wouldn’t be the only thing of NASA’s that would be going away either.
In what is called “pass backs,” President Trump shared his proposed budget with NASA before making a formal request to Congress. This is the early stage of the annual budget process where the President proposes their budget before Congress does the real work of crafting and passing the actual budget.
It was reported earlier this month that NASA, alongside other government agencies, would be receiving a budget cut to hopefully reduce the overall US budget. Trump’s early proposal would make that a roughly 20% cut, $25 billion down to about $20 billion, with the majority of that coming out of its Science programs.
Overall, the Science Mission Directorate would see a 50% cut in its budget, essentially shutting down the bulk of its ability to build new missions. Included in the cuts would be the Mars Sample Return and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
“If enacted, this would be nothing short of an extinction-level event for NASA science.” Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society, a non-partisan advocacy group with a goal to continue the growth of NASA’s budget, said. “Dozens upon dozens of active missions would be terminated, billions wasted by cancelling on-budget projects in development, and thousands of future scientists and engineers across the country unable to pursue their education through lack of funds. It would be a generational, self-inflicted wound to U.S. preeminence in spaceflight.”
One program that would see a devastating cut will be the Nancy Roman Space Telescope. Scheduled to launch as early as late next year, the program has been 87% funded. The telescope is nearing completion and has cost NASA $3.4 billion, with a total cost estimate of $3.7 billion.
Contrary to other NASA programs, Nancy has been on budget and on schedule for most of its development time, something rather unheard of in the government contract world. However, Trump’s budget would cancel the program just before it’s completed.
“To cancel this project now is inefficient and profoundly wasteful, the opposite of what this Administration wants to promote,” Dreier said
As Dreier said, canceling Nancy would be a total waste of money for taxpayers as the program is nearly completed. However, we shouldn’t be shocked by this administration’s disregard for science. President Trump seems to have his eyes set on human exploration of Mars. Future NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman, hopes to do both exploration of the Moon and Mars; however, tightening budgets could prove that difficult.
Hope is not lost for the team building Nancy; Congress has the final say on what NASA’s budget will be. In the past, Presidents have attempted to cancel programs, only for Congress to fully fund them. Given that Nancy will only require a few hundred million to finish its development and about $80 million a year to operate, it would be shocking for Congress to just throw away all the time and money spent getting to this point.
