WHAT’S HAPPENING
In May, the White House Office of Management and Budget sent out President Trump’s recommendations on discretionary funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2026, which begins Oct. 1.
For NASA, the budget proposed an increase to human exploration, but significant slashes to most other programs and areas of research.
The overall NASA budget would drop over 24% from $24.8 billion if FY25 to $18.8 billion next fiscal year.
The Planetary Society, a nonprofit promoting space science and exploration, said it’s the largest percentage cut ever proposed for NASA and would bring the NASA workforce to its smallest size since “before the dawn of the space age.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE IS SAYING
The White House said the Trump Administration’s objectives are “returning to the Moon before China and putting a man on Mars.”
This includes over $8 billion for human exploration, including the Artemis Campaign, which aims to achieve the Administration’s space goals.
The budget request also calls various current space missions and research projects “low priority,” “unaffordable,” and in the case of outreach and education programs, “woke STEM programming and research that prioritizes some groups of students over others.”
The cuts are part of the Administration’s overall efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.
WHY IT MATTERS
The drastic budget reductions would lead to a number of programs and missions being slashed, including many based in Colorado like New Horizons and MAVEN.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) has been exploring the climate history of Mars for more than a decade, according to KOAA sister station Denver7, which spoke to the CU scientists leading MAVEN.
New Horizons launched in 2006 and was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close with a flyby in 2015. It has since continued outward into space to the Kuiper Belt.
Fran Bagenal helped conceive and launch New Horizons. She works at CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), is a senior research scientist, and professor emerita for the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“They're talking about cutting the funding to about 40 NASA missions that are on the chopping block,” said Bagenal. “It's a huge disappointment when it's three cents per taxpayer to keep New Horizons going…especially when you realize how this has excited school kids to do their math homework and to move on and get them excited.”
She said once missions like New Horizons or MAVEN are turned off, they can never be switched back on again. They’d be lost to space forever, she said.
WHAT SCIENTISTS AND SPACE INDUSTRY ARE SAYING
Bagenal also said she fears these cuts will impact a generation of scientists and engineers in the United States. The younger generations would be less inspired to enter the field with fewer projects in space, she said. And those losing their missions or work due to these budget cuts will go elsewhere.
“The scientists and engineers are going to leave the US and go elsewhere, other space-faring nations,” said Bagenal.
Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for the Planetary Society, said the cuts are wasteful and nonstrategic.
“It is self-sabotaging politically, and it also wastes billions of dollars of taxpayer investment by turning off perfectly well functioning spacecraft, abandoning projects midstream and abandoning our allies across the world,” Dreier said.
Dreier, who has extensively tracked the impacts of the proposed cuts, said it slashes NASA’s science program almost in half. This research includes space telescopes and non-human missions.
“That is an extinction level event for this activity. They will be turning off perfectly good missions that are active now, leaving them to tumble in space. I am not exaggerating this,” Dreier said.
“They will result in huge job losses and fewer students going into STEM fields, fewer professionals, fewer opportunities to explore the solar system and know our cosmos in our place within it.”
COLORADO SPACE ECONOMY IMPACTS
According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), the Centennial State is America’s second largest space economy and number one per capita in aerospace employment.
The Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC says the city has over 150 aerospace companies.
NASA contracts in Colorado generated more than $5 billion in economic activity in FY23, supporting 21,600 jobs and contributing $190 million in state tax revenue, according to NASA data.
OEDIT says Colorado’s space industry and aerospace businesses directly employ 55,000 people and another 184,000 indirectly.
In Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District (CD-5), which encompasses most of El Paso County, the Planetary Society said the FY26 science cuts would impact a few local companies like Veteran Information Technologies, V3gate, Keysight Technologies, and Ems Thin Metal Parts would instantly lose over half a million dollars in economic activity.
“This impacts NASA's civil servant workforce, but also its contractor workforce, which Colorado has a lot of contractors working for NASA,” Dreier with the Planetary Society said.
SOME NEW MONEY IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’
Republican Congressman Jeff Crank, who represents CD-5, said he helped secure more funding for specific NASA missions in the massive spending bill that narrowly passed Congress last week.
"I'm proud to have helped secure $10 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill for NASA missions, including Artemis, which will return man to the moon for the first time in 50 years,” Rep. Crank said. “When paired with the billions secured for the Space Force, this funding will supercharge the Space Economy in El Paso County and Colorado."
Rep. Crank did not answer questions about the FY26 NASA budget cuts and potential effects on Colorado and CD-5.
Though that extra funding in the spending bill is a sliver of good news, the Planetary Society says it isn’t enough.
“It doesn't touch the science cuts, and it doesn't address some of the fundamental education cuts. It is helpful, but it doesn't solve the major problems that we see with this budget,” said Casey Dreier with the Planetary Society.
WHAT’S NEXT
Some might have confused President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” as the budget bill, but it was a spending bill focusing on his priorities.
The actual Fiscal Year 26 budget bill is still being worked on in Congress.
Until then, scientists like Fran Bagenal at CU-Boulder and space enthusiasts like Casey Dreier with the Planetary Society are hoping others share their concerns and reach out to their local representatives before the budget passes.
CONCERN WHITE HOUSE MIGHT SHUTTER MISSIONS BEFORE CONGRESS ACTS
Meantime, the White House apparently sent out memos last week to dozens of NASA mission leaders to prepare “closeout” plans by this week.
Outlet Ars Technica reported on the memos and the Planetary Society confirmed to KOAA they’ve seen the pages. KOAA has not independently seen nor verified the White House memos.
According to Ars Technica, some of the closeout plans must be prepared as soon as July 9 for some missions.
“Every mission that is proposed to be canceled has been contacted and said to plan for a closeout, to report those plans by mid next week, with the closeout plan to be in place by the first day of the fiscal year, which is October 1,” said Casey Dreier with the Planetary Society.
He said Colorado-based missions like MAVEN are “absolutely” part of that list to receive a White House memo.
About 41 missions were told to begin the closeout process, which is about a third of NASA’s entire science portfolio, Dreier said.
“There's a number of projects that are managed or run out of Colorado that are earmarked for cancellation that they are aggressively moving to cancel before Congress weighs in,” said Dreier.
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTV on X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
Brett can also communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.
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