Despite proposed science cuts, NASA boss says 'We haven't canceled anything yet'

That 'yet' is sure doing a lot of heavy lifting if the budget for science is slashed

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has appeared before the US House Appropriations Committee to explain the proposed Trump administration plan to cut $5.6 billion from the space agency's budget.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), the committee's chairman, extended his congratulations to NASA, Isaacman, and all those involved in recognition of the Artemis II mission before telling the administrator how disappointed he was.

"After all the success and momentum NASA has built up over the last year," Rogers said, "it's disappointing to see that request."

The FY2027 budget request for NASA cuts funding by 23 percent and reduces the Science Mission Directorate by 46 percent, down to $3.9 billion. To put those figures in context, the first week of the US's war against Iran cost well over $10 billion, according to reports.

Dozens of missions are at risk, some in the planning stages, and some are active. The Planetary Society provided a helpful list and commentary from scientists on some of the endangered missions.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is either on the chopping block or facing deployment in phases. It is a flagship-class mission and so carries a high price tag as currently designed. Evgenya Shkolnik, PhD, said, "Canceling HWO would destroy humanity’s first real opportunity to detect life on another planet."

Then there is NASA's contribution to the European Space Agency's "snakebit" Mars trundlebot, which the agency has committed to launching but for which no funding has been allocated. After its ride to the red planet on a Russian rocket was canceled following the invasion of Ukraine, the rover was meant to launch on a NASA-provided rocket. Its cancellation would mean, at best, more delays for the mission to find signatures of life.

Active assignments are also under threat. In 2022, NASA announced an extension for the OSIRIS-Rex mission. The primary objective – collecting a sample from the asteroid Bennu – was complete. The sample was returned to Earth in 2023, but since the spacecraft was still healthy, it was directed on an extended mission to inspect a near-Earth asteroid. Renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer, for the asteroid it is headed to), the spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in 2029.

However, if cut, the spacecraft will be silenced.

And the list goes on. Much as it did last year. In fact, the whole process carries a whiff of déjà vu about it following 2025's budget proposal, which was dubbed "an extinction event for science and exploration in the United States" by observers.

The same language is being used again as the latest budget's implications are digested. Last week, Casey Drier, Chief of Space Policy for the Planetary Society, wrote, "An extinction-level event can be thought of as a sudden, external calamity wiping out a given species. For the dinosaurs, it was the Chicxulub impactor.

"For NASA's science program, it very well may be the FY 2027 Presidential Budget Request."

Pressed on why more than 50 missions were omitted from budget documents sent to Congress, Isaacman insisted "they are not canceled," but qualified his statement: "a lot of these missions that are in formulation right now have coverage from existing assets."

He went on to suggest that commercial industry could be used for Earth observation missions at least.

This must be a great comfort to scientists pondering the fate of OSIRIS-APEX and its trip to an asteroid. The subcommittee appeared equally unconvinced by Isaacman's insistence that NASA could meet its goals with the budget in the request.

Lawmakers will have the opportunity to amend the budget request, as they did last year. To coin a phrase, "Aw heck, here we go again." ®