BOULDER, Colo. — President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts bill includes cuts to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), primarily when it comes to its science funding.
The Planetary Society reports that the budget for NASA would fall to its lowest level since 1961, if the cuts become reality. It would also be the "largest percentage cut ever proposed for NASA," according to the organization.
In a May 2 letter to Senator Susan Collins (R - ME), the chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Trump administration wrote that overall federal funding levels from the 2025 fiscal year were "found to be laden with spending contrary to the needs of ordinary working Americans and tilted toward funding niche non-governmental organizations and institutions of higher education committed to radical gender and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life."
Meanwhile, Coloradans who have dedicated their lives to space exploration are concerned about the impact the cuts to NASA could have on the state and country.
- This story began after a viewer wrote to Denver7, asking us to examine how the proposed cuts to NASA could impact Colorado. Read a portion of that email below:
Lisa Upton can remember the first time she looked through a telescope and saw Saturn as a child. Her fascination with outer space from a young age translated into her career as a solar scientist.
"The U.S. has been a leader in science and technology for decades, and if these budget cuts go through, we're going to cede that role to somebody else," Upton said. "Even established scientists, they're leaving the country because the jobs are disappearing. Seeing that loss to the community is really, really sad to me, and it's not just important for them, but it's important for the generations to come."
Upton said budget cuts happen from time to time, as part of the natural rise and fall of the economy. However, she said the proposed 47% reduction in science funding for NASA would be "devastating."
"These impacts aren't just about today, tomorrow, next week, next year. These impacts are long-lasting. They're going to last, you know, many, many years — possibly even decades," Upton said.
Upton believes the cuts could impact the local economy, as well. Dr. Shannon Curry, an associate professor of astrophysics and planetary science at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), agrees.
"American leadership in space isn't just about being number one. It's about jobs. All of the aerospace industry provides jobs here in the state of Colorado, as well as the entire nation," Curry said. "In the state of Colorado, there's $5 billion in economic output just in the aerospace industry."
Curry is also the principal investigator for NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission, which is led by scientists at CU Boulder.
"MAVEN is the best observer of atmospheric escape and evolution, not just at Mars but anywhere in the solar system," Curry said with a smile. "The reason that's so important is now we can understand what Mars's atmosphere used to look like back in time, what it looks like today, and now we have clues to what it will look like in the future. And that can even tell us about what Earth might look like in the future."
MAVEN has been exploring the climate history of Mars for more than a decade. The mission is funded through the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, according to Curry.
"The proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would end dozens of active missions within NASA, and missions we're starting to already build," Curry said. "It would cancel MAVEN, yes."
If MAVEN were cut, Curry said it would be both professionally and personally devastating.
"Our team, honestly, is like family. We've worked so hard together over the years, in fact, over the last decade. And it's not just the team here in Colorado, it's the team across the nation," said Curry. "What's so risky about this kind of a proposed budget cut is that MAVEN is America's number one telecom relay asset. That means it takes all the data from the rovers that we have on Mars and sends it back down to Earth. So, not only would it threaten the whole Mars Exploration Program and getting all of our data back, but it would also threaten American leadership in space."
Curry is also concerned about the cuts and how they could impact the future of the field.
"We're the ones who have encouraged [students] to go into this field. We have to compete with tech, we have to compete with a lot of other industries to get them to want to do space science, and now the government's telling them those jobs aren't valuable, and that's an awful feeling," Curry said.
Denver7 asked Curry if MAVEN was cut, could the project ever be brought back?
"If a mission is truly decommissioned and turned off? No, it cannot be rehabilitated," Curry replied. "To operate MAVEN, rebuilding it from scratch would be over a billion [dollars]. So, this is just a bad business decision."
The Senate on Tuesday approved Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote after three Republicans joined all 47 Democrats in opposing the measure.
The bill now moves to the House, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.
