Overview
- OMB’s fiscal 2027 request would cut NASA’s science budget by 47 percent and reduce the agency’s overall funding by 23 percent.
- Policy experts say the document hides key details, omits prior-year figures, and allocates $438 million to a vague “Mars Technology” line with no cost breakdown.
- The request contains factual errors, including listing the canceled Mars Sample Return program and misstating funding timing for the James Webb Space Telescope.
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman defended the plan, saying NASA can still reach the Moon and noting that U.S. NASA science funding remains larger than other space agencies combined.
- Advocates warn that dozens of missions could be threatened, with one estimate as high as 82, while some NASA staff expect Congress to restore funding after last year’s reversal.