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COLORADO SPRINGS — Some NASA Earth science missions have been told to prepare termination plans given the potential for major budget cuts in the agency’s overall science activities.
Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.), vice ranking member of the House Science Committee, said at a congressional roundtable here April 6 during the 40th Space Symposium that he had recently learned that both Earth science missions in formulation and those in extended operations after their prime missions had been asked to prepare termination plans starting for fiscal year 2026.
“To be clear, this is not yet agency direction, but the fact that we are preparing these scenarios is extremely concerning, and I’m going to be working very hard to make sure that we protect our Earth science missions,” he said.
He said after the panel that he did not know if missions in other divisions of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, such as astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science, had received similar instructions. Even if it limited to Earth science, he said, the fact that those missions had been advised to prepare termination plans “scares the heck out of me.”
The comments fueled widespread speculation that the White House may seek a major cut in NASA’s science budget in its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, due later this spring. Some reports have suggested cuts as large as 50% in NASA’s $7.3 billion science budget.
At an April 1 hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee on NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, Whitesides asked Nicky Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, if the agency was making preparations for a 50% cut. She responded that NASA had not seen the administration’s 2026 budget request, “so we have not run any scenarios since we don’t know what is in there.”
Asked what the impact of that rumors 50% cut would be, she said it would depend on the specifics of the proposal. “But, a 50% cut is going to result in some pretty drastic decisions.”
The chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), was also at the congressional roundtable and said afterwards he was taking a wait-and-see approach to any science cuts. “I’m not really going to lose sleep on that now until we get some briefings on what is going on,” he said.
“Peak uncertainty”
At an April 3 committee meeting during the National Academies’ Space Science Week, Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth science division, deferred questions on the budget. “I don’t have budget insights and I don’t really have insights to share with regards to the executive order on agency reorganization,” she said. “That’s happening above my pay grade.”
Other NASA officials at Space Science Week said they knew little, if anything, about the upcoming budget and related issues. “I truly do believe we are at peak uncertainty right now,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of NASA’s astrophysics division, during another committee meeting April 3. That uncertainty includes the budget and potential agency restructuring as well as when the White House’s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, will be confirmed.
Budget uncertainty for 2026 affects both the newest and oldest missions in the agency’s astrophysics fleet. Domagal-Goldman said NASA is preparing to release a call for the next Small Explorer, or SMEX, astrophysics mission.
“The SMEX call is going to be dependent on the budgets that we’re getting for ’26 and beyond,” he said. “Our plan is to wait until we have knowledge of what the budget climate is going to be under this administration before we go forward with a release.”
That also applies to NASA’s response to a senior review of extended astrophysics missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. That review is complete but not released, and he praised the committee that developed it for looking at those missions individually and as a system.
The challenge in implementing its recommendations is the budget. “I think if we had flat budgets, I would know exactly what to do and I’d be ready to move forward with that,” he said. “But I don’t know if we’re going to have that.”
He and other NASA officials at Space Science Week said that they had yet to receive the “passback” from the Office of Management and Budget, that office’s draft of the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal that provides agencies a final opportunity to seek changes before the budget is released.
NASA is also working to implement an operating plan for fiscal year 2025 after the passage in March of a full-year continuing resolution that funds the government at 2024 levels. Charles Webb, acting director of NASA’s planetary science division, said at Space Science Week March 31 that the Science Mission Directorate was working to allocate the overall amount among the various divisions.
He said that planetary science’s total budget for 2025 should be close to what it requested, because what it requested for 2025 was similar to what it received in 2024.
Adding to the uncertainty is the reported termination of $420 million in “unneeded” contracts at NASA, announced by the Department of Government Efficiency March 21 and confirmed by the agency March 24. NASA has not provided any details on what contracts have been cut. Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, has searched procurement databases and has found only about $74.5 million in NASA contracts that have been terminated.
Webb said he hadn’t seen details about the terminated contracts, including any that might affect his division’s work. “I don’t know which grants have been canceled. It’s a very fluid situation,” he said, suggesting that the decisions were being made by the NASA Shared Services Center, which handles procurement activities.
One canceled contract he was familiar with involved the removal of plants at NASA Headquarters. “People came through one day and they took away all of our plants,” he said. “I don’t know how much money that saved.”
