NASA - Updates Only

[Flyaway]

If one assumes that NASA's budget should only ever increase, that there are no wasteful programs that need trimmed or cut, and that it's wrong to want to cut them, perhaps. Impeaching Vought for a reduced NASA budget sounds preposterous to me, and sets a precedent to get rid of people not because they did anything immoral, unethical, or illegal, but simply because you don't like them. I'm not a fan.

As for what Blackstar said, here's another way to frame it: come work for NASA, where the worst-performing employees can finally be cut, where you can finally work on something meaningful rather than a jobs program, where your job will resonate with future generations even if your name is unknown, because we're going to build things that matter.

Also, as with the previous time the White House suggested a reduced budget for NASA, I will again advise patience to see what Congress does, rather than panicking. The odds are good they'll appropriate more money than the WH wants.

I’m going to quote Blackstar again in this new post because it addresses precisely the point you raise above.

And this is what is relevant to NASA. Whenever somebody naively says "Don't worry because Congress will restore the money," they're ignoring the fact that NASA is people, those people have to follow budget guidance, and those people may quit, and uncertainty is inefficient. Does anybody think that the NASA Venus missions made any progress last year when they were under the threat of cancellation? Do you think they'll make great progress this year while under the threat of cancellation? Does anybody think that NASA can lose 20% of its staff and everything will run smoothly?* NASA (and the US taxpayers) are paying for a lot of people to sit around and not do their full jobs, because of all that uncertainty. That's vital to remember.




*Relevant anecdote: The day after the Artemis II launch I had dinner with a space reporter, somebody who had covered a lot of shuttle launches in the 1990s and 2000s before changing careers. He was out at the press site for this launch as a special reporter for a news organization. He said that the press accommodations for Artemis II were bad. Nowhere near as good as for previous big events like the John Glenn flight or the return to flight after Columbia. Lousy desks, reporters sitting on the floor. Poor preparation. I mentioned this to somebody at NASA and they noted that NASA lost a lot of public affairs people last year. They took the retirement option. Even proposed budgets have consequences.

 

[BlueAbyssal]

By all accounts, we've also been paying a lot of people to sit around and not do much at all, given how much we've thrown away on programs like MSR, the SLS, Orion, and JWST, to name but a few projects. It is the right thing to do, if you believe in your program, to continue working in the face of opposition, rather than giving up because there's the possibility it might be canceled. Yes, that doesn't preclude leadership from providing a consistent vision and certainty (and keep in mind Isaacman wasn't in charge most of 2025), but NASA staff are not helpless victims, and we shouldn't treat them that way, especially given that other people's money has to be appropriated as taxes to pay for their work.

In any event, I was referring to people on this forum panicking, not NASA's personnel. But they, and you all, should remember that every dime the government gets comes from the people, not itself, that there are tens of millions of people who don't agree with you on budget priorities, that their values and interests are as legitimate as yours, and they have as much right to input in how our taxes are spent as you. That's something I find sorely lacking in all the complaints about NASA's budget. More than one of you comes off as thinking it's traitorous to cut a federal agency's budget, and you seemingly don't realize that you're not making it more appealing to give NASA money when you react so badly to cutting programs that a huge percentage of the country see as legitimate waste. Figure out how to persuade them, stop trying to compel them, and show real value, and you'll find far less opposition. For some reason trying to persuade people who disagree instead of browbeating them into submission has gotten very unpopular among NASA diehards.

 

[Null]

NASA budget: USD 24.4B
ESA budget: € 8.26 (USD 9.5B)
Rokosmos budget: ₽ 337.1 (4.2B)

The amount of money we spent on Ukraine and Iran which I still personally think neither objectives would be met to benefit us, would have been a better idea to transfer to NASA or give Space X more involvement for spacecraft designs or rocket launches. Even though Russia fucked up the Luna-25 mission the cost of Angara A5 with production moved to Omsk lowered the cost to 75 million dollars the A5M design is aimed to be further cheaper than that which is better than paying 2-4 billion dollars a launch with the SLS. I think even the Orel spacecraft has more re-usability and they went from solid to liquid fuel thrusters for landing while the Orion spacecraft still uses parachutes. Not defending congress for cutting NASA's budget but did they have cheaper alternatives like picking Musk's rockets or musk making a bigger spacecraft with better technology and re-use for deep space use then the dragon capsule they currently use for missions on the ISS to replace Orion? Because of Orion weight being slightly too heavy for the Falcon-9 even the Falcon heavy would have been a cheaper solution then SLS.

 

[Byeman]

By all accounts, we've also been paying a lot of people to sit around and not do much at all, given how much we've thrown away on programs like MSR, the SLS, Orion, and JWST, to name but a few projects.

Money on JWST was not wasted. Again, NASA is not monolithic and people don't just sit around doing nothing.

 

[Byeman]

NASA budget: USD 24.4B
ESA budget: € 8.26 (USD 9.5B)
Rokosmos budget: ₽ 337.1 (4.2B)

The amount of money we spent on Ukraine and Iran which I still personally think neither objectives would be met to benefit us,

No, it doesn't work that way. It is a false argument. Money for the military or money taken from the military will never be available for NASA. Different pots of money and different requirements. The actions do benefit us despite the actual objectives.

 

[BlueAbyssal]

Money on JWST was not wasted. Again, NASA is not monolithic and people don't just sit around doing nothing.

Sure it was. That it launched in the end doesn’t mean that we didn’t make numerous avoidable mistakes during its design and construction. It isn’t a waste in the ultimate sense, which is what I think you mean.

 

[Byeman]

Sure it was. That it launched in the end doesn’t mean that we didn’t make numerous avoidable mistakes during its design and construction. It isn’t a waste in the ultimate sense, which is what I think you mean.

wrong. There wasn't any mistakes during design and construction. It was in developing the technologies before design.
Have you been at any NASA center with eyes on proof of the accusations that you make?

 

[BlueAbyssal]

Yes, there were-debris was found inside during testing, the sunshield was torn during a practice deployment, they fried the pressure transducer for the propellant, they used the wrong solvent for some of the valves. Mike Menzel, the lead systems engineer for Webb, said they made (in his terminology), "stupid mistakes." You can read about that and more here: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/richard-panek/pillars-of-creation/9780316570695/#:~:text=Pillars of Creation tells the,the secrets of the cosmos.

 

[Byeman]

Yes, there were-debris was found inside during testing, the sunshield was torn during a practice deployment, they fried the pressure transducer for the propellant, they used the wrong solvent for some of the valves. Mike Menzel, the lead systems engineer for Webb, said they made (in his terminology), "stupid mistakes." You can read about that and more here: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/richard-panek/pillars-of-creation/9780316570695/#:~:text=Pillars of Creation tells the,the secrets of the cosmos.

Those were contractor mistakes, not NASA.

 

[Flyaway]

While NASA's budget proposal would cut the agency to $18 billion, Space Force would get $71 billion, an increase of $40 billion.

Space Force budget would more than double in Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense plan
$71 billion request for the U.S. Space Force for fiscal year 2027 includes more than $60 billion for procurement, research and development
by Sandra Erwin April 4, 2026

Gen Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, speaks at the Mitchell Institute hosts the Fourth Annual Spacepower Security Forum at the Army Navy Country Club. Credit: Jud McCrehin, Air & Space Forces Association

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal calls for a sharp expansion of U.S. military spending, including a particularly large increase for the U.S. Space Force as the Pentagon shifts resources toward on-orbit capabilities for missile defense.

The White House on April 3 outlined a $1.5 trillion national defense budget, a roughly 42% increase that would mark the largest military topline in U.S. history. The proposal frames the increase as a push to rebuild industrial capacity and accelerate new programs, including a missile defense architecture known as Golden Dome for America.

Within that total, funding for the U.S. Space Force would climb to more than $71 billion, up about $40 billion from fiscal 2026 levels, according to budget materials. The increase represents the most significant infusion of resources since its creation in 2019.

Space Force budget would more than double in Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense plan

Space Force budget would more than double in Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense plan

spacenews.com

 

[publiusr]

Space Force should be funded better, though I would like to see a lot of that on vehicle development. Dream Chaser deserves to be propped up. Capsules reserved for return from BEO only.

 

[publiusr]

Those were contractor mistakes, not NASA.

You are wasting your breath...he wants to kill *all* public funded science missions. Ideology. I have heard him say as much elsewhere, Jim.

 

[Byeman]

Space Force should be funded better, though I would like to see a lot of that on vehicle development. Dream Chaser deserves to be propped up. Capsules reserved for return from BEO only.

It is better funded already and funded more. Space Force doesn't need more "vehicle development". It needs satellites, not entry vehicles or launch vehicles. It has no reasons to prop up anything and it has no use for Dream Chaser. It has no need for station logistics.

 

[Byeman]

You are wasting your breath...he wants to kill *all* public funded science missions. Ideology. I have heard him say as much elsewhere, Jim.

Aside from that, at least the rest of his ideology is closer to the real world than the lies and misinformation that is contained in the posts by........

 

[BlueAbyssal]

While NASA's budget proposal would cut the agency to $18 billion, Space Force would get $71 billion, an increase of $40 billion.

For better and worse, military spending is easier to justify, and especially as Golden Dome ramps up it will need more money.

Aside from that, at least the rest of his ideology is closer to the real world than the lies and misinformation that is contained in the posts by........

I have no idea where publiusr got that idea. Publicly funded science has its place, though it needs to be far better managed, and we could likely do more with less money if we were smart.

 

[Byeman]

I have no idea where publiusr got that idea. Publicly funded science has its place, though it needs to be far better managed, and we could likely do more with less money if we were smart.

Takes things to the extreme

 

[martinbayer]

Takes things to the extreme

As a senior aerospace engineer (started working in the industry in December 1987), that sounds like a solid intellectual stress test to me.

 

[BlueAbyssal]

You’re practically ancient, you were an engineer before I was born.

 

[GTX]

You’re practically ancient, you were an engineer before I was born.

You are making us "old farts" feel even older.

 

[Flyaway]

NASA Flew by the Moon, but Behind the Scenes, Its Science Is a Chaotic Mess
New York Times, April 8

Artemis II’s journey around the moon, scheduled to conclude on Friday, has delivered stunning new images of our home world taken from space.

Those pictures remind us that Earth has changed immensely since the last time astronauts went near the moon in 1972. So has NASA. Budget cuts, chaos and political interference now threaten the very science that motivates and enables space exploration. President Trump’s 2027 budget request calls for a nearly 50 percent cut to NASA’s science division. We may still be able to shoot for the moon, but we’re losing the ability to understand our own world.

When I was young, I always wanted to work for NASA, and after years of study, I was finally hired as a research physicist. But last month I quit my job, joining over 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s who have left the federal government since Mr. Trump returned to office. Call it the great American nerd exodus, as scientists studying cancer, agriculture and weather prediction suddenly became the targets, or collateral damage, of political attacks.

 

[NMaude]

President Trump’s 2027 budget request calls for a nearly 50 percent cut to NASA’s science division.

I strongly suspect the hidden hand of Russell Vought is responsible for this nonsense.

 

[Brett Davidson]

The proposed budget is bad, and it's also stupid.

Jubilant return of Artemis II shadowed by ‘extinction-level’ cuts to Nasa: ‘It’s discordant’

Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program

www.theguardian.com

Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society:

“But it’s discordant. The budget itself is seemingly contradictory with a number of statements that Nasa [sic] leadership said a few weeks ago at the Ignition event. It adds more confusion to this situation than clarity and is a baffling piece of political ideology from an alternate universe in which they didn’t suffer an overwhelming defeat of that proposal just months ago.”

Dreier was referring to a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress in January that rejected an almost identical proposal by Trump for Nasa’s 2026 budget, and looks likely to do so again for 2027.

“I call it a copy-paste budget, and I’m not really exaggerating because some of the highlights include how they would find savings by canceling the Mars sample return, which was canceled last year and is done,” he said.

“There’s no more. You can’t double-cancel it. It mentioned two [other] programs which ended last year. There are major errors such as requesting funding for both the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes because they forgot to change the cut and paste, right?

 

[Flyaway]

Problem is as we’ve seen it doesn’t matter what lawmakers give NASA, because the OMB has other methods of cutting off the flow of money to NASA. And effectively implementing the presidential budget.

Key Senate appropriator rejects proposed NASA budget cuts

 

[publiusr]

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

https://twitter.com/x/status/2044940336590397627

Where is that Havana syndrome contraption when you really need it. Artemis II is a successful outcome made in spite of the enemies of MSFC.

HIllhouse wanted peaceful coexistence...but the gloves are off now.

If OMB and EUS are off the table, then Congress should ban methalox propellants after the midterm flip, SLS politicians abstaining. And they will.

I don't want my tax dollars going to trillionaires.

 

[Byeman]

If OMB and EUS are off the table, then Congress should ban methalox propellants after the midterm flip,

for what reason?

 

[martinbayer]

If OMB and EUS are off the table, then Congress should ban methalox propellants after the midterm flip,

Why would you want the technically and scientifically almost *completely* illiterate us congress to have a veto say in rocket propellants???

 

[publiusr]

As much as folks hate politicians...it actually was the Shelby types that returned humans to the Moon. This is about slapping the hands of tech-bros and backing them off. Ears Issacman wants SLS dead so his buddy Elon can take Shelby's place. But unlike the good folks in SLS states, Elon doesn't need the money.

Martin, I remember a time when space advocates bragged about the good the great breadth of NASA had on the economy. No longer...now folks who purport to be space advocates are NASA's worst enemy...and so Congress needs to be theirs.

Spiro T. Agnew was a crook--but he and DeLay were *angels* compared to the individuals infesting the administration now.

The move I call far is to give the tech brahs such a scare that they will order the current sabotage to cease--or they don't fly either.

If Elonco won't allow mutual assured survival --then mutual assured destruction it must be.

The SLS states should also vote against anything Trump wants until Issacman is out on his ears--or has them pinned back.

He'd look less simian anyway.

You know, if the Blue States would quit talking investigate this and ban classic cars that--and reach out to SLS states...they could perhaps get the Voughts out faster than waiting for midterms, where the Redder guys would fight them more. The DNC should embrace the SLS guys now, and if Trump really wants his war...well, I'll get my heels and do a little dance to see Voughts head on a platter, so to speak.

If the Donald wants a victory, then SLS needs off the slab, and (The Maltese) Falcon perhaps in its place?

Time for Jared to play Wilma:

 

[martinbayer]

As much as folks hate politicians...it actually was the Shelby types that returned humans to the Moon. This is about slapping the hands of tech-bros and backing them off. Ears Issacman wants SLS dead so his buddy Elon can take Shelby's place. But unlike the good folks in SLS states, Elon doesn't need the money.

Martin, I remember a time when space advocates bragged about the good the great breadth of NASA had on the economy. No longer...now folks who purport to be space advocates are NASA's worst enemy...and so Congress needs to be theirs.

Spiro T. Agnew was a crook--but he and DeLay were *angels* compared to the individuals infesting the administration now.

The move I call far is to give the tech brahs such a scare that they will order the current sabotage to cease--or they don't fly either.

If Elonco won't allow mutual assured survival --then mutual assured destruction it must be.

The SLS states should also vote against anything Trump wants until Issacman is out on his ears--or has them pinned back.

He'd look less simian anyway.

You know, if the Blue States would quit talking investigate this and ban classic cars that--and reach out to SLS states...they could perhaps get the Voughts out faster than waiting for midterms, where the Redder guys would fight them more. The DNC should embrace the SLS guys now, and if Trump really wants his war...well, I'll get my heels and do a little dance to see Voughts head on a platter, so to speak.

If the Donald wants a victory, then SLS needs off the slab, and (The Maltese) Falcon perhaps in its place?

Time for Jared to play Wilma:

I am honestly completely unsure as to what your argument is supposed to be here, but trump is quite apparently focused on building a white house ballroom as well as a victory(?) arch rather than landing on the moon, so please elaborate on your optimism? For trump, everything has to be visible and tangible in raw tv camera footage, and not something only 'nerds' could view through a telescope or with even a one second delay, like a human *relanding* on the Moon. 4+ years in total, and apparently you *still* have not figured out his basic "governing" principles...

 

[publiusr]

I am honestly completely unsure as to what your argument is supposed to be here, but trump is quite apparently focused on building a white house ballroom as well as a victory(?) arch rather than landing on the moon, so please elaborate on your optimism?

The fact that he doesn't care about space is actually the advantage here.

The goal here is for another TACO with Donald throwing Jared under the bus if things get too hot. An LBJ moment (I'll give you your damn rocket") Only here the primes don't need 50,000 dead G.I.s

I mean--you'd think Trump would be an SLS fan in that they are both considered bloated Orange monstrosities...

The difference is that one got America's mojo back--and the other squandered it.

I will leave it to the gentle reader to decide which one that is..one, the other, both, or neither.

I actually miss Tom Lehrer. Can you imagine the song he would sing about all this?

I guess that's all A.I. is really good for.
Come on sparky--give us a tune....

 

[Jemiba]

Judging the intensity of the discussion, it would be a pity, if the thread would have to be turned into a "NEWS ONLY" one, wouldn't it ?
So, please, come back to the core theme here, relocate political discussion to PM, and perhaps have a second thought about wording, as bragging usually provoke similar answers, too often leading to undesirable results for all !

For short, back to topic, please !

 

[publiusr]

A spin-off of NASA, some technology has been used to study aircraft:

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-surface-draped-fiber-captured-plane.html

Originally deployed to record re-entry signals of the OSIRIS-REx return capsule, a T-shaped fiber optic cable draped across the ground at a Nevada airfield also captured unique aspects of a Cessna 172's speed and maneuvering.

Researchers at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting said the findings help demonstrate the potential for rapid deployment of fiber optic cable and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in environments where burying the cable isn't feasible.

The study by Elisa McGhee, a Ph.D. candidate at Colorado State University and former Air Force pilot, and colleagues also adds to the growing body of research on aircraft detection and flight analysis using DAS.

Also of use for drone defense.

In the news

Report: Illegal Implementation of Trump’s FY2026 Budget Request Without Congressional Approval

Report: llegal Implementation of Trump’s FY2026 Budget Request Without Congressional Approval

nasawatch.com

NASA's Global Reach Just Got Broader

NASA's Global Reach Just Got Broader

nasawatch.com

Don't skimp

Why NASA’s Cheapest Missions Produce the Least Science

To say NASA has been undergoing some massive administrative changes lately is a huge understatement. One of the more concerning ones, according to a new paper at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Ari Koeppel and Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society, is the trend towards the...

www.universetoday.com

The lack of planetary science data is probably due to the fact that no very-low cost planetary science mission has actually worked.