The White House recently released its budget for FY 2026, which has led to significant concerns at NASA as it recommends significant cuts to international programs, education, and research. In addition, many of these cuts call for the cancellation of key elements of NASA's Artemis Program and its plans for sending crewed missions to Mars. This includes the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, and the Lunar Gateway.
Episode 100 - NASA 2026 Budget
The authors acknowledged that this podcast was recorded on the traditional unceded lands of the Lekwungen peoples. Hello and welcome back to Stories From Space. I'm your host, Matt Williams, and today as promised, we're gonna take a look at NASA's budget for the coming year, otherwise known as the 2026 fiscal year budget report and the potential impact that this could have from NASA.
This report was chaired by the honorable Susan Collins and issued on May 2nd of this year. Release of the report has led to significant concerns at the agency as it recommends significant cuts to international programs, education, and research. In addition, many of these cuts call for cancellations to key elements of NASA's proposed Return to the Moon and sending crewed missions to Mars.
As we explored in a previous episode with Keith Cowing as our guest, there has been a sense of chaos over at NASA ever since the Trump administration entered office, largely because of the significant cuts implemented by DOGE or the Department of Government Efficiency. For many, this budget is a further cause of trepidation and uncertainty. For others, it confirms what has been suspected for some time now.
To summarize it briefly, the budget allocates $7 billion for lunar exploration and $1 billion for programs focused on Mars. The Budget is also very clear that NASA's priorities for the coming years are returning astronauts to the Moon and Mars ahead of China. At the same time, it calls for the phasing out of the Space Launch System, the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway, and further directs NASA to find more cost-effective commercial launch services and inherit source key research to the commercial sector.
In short, NASA's looking at a budget of $18.8 billion for the coming year, which is a reduction of roughly $,6.34 billion compared to fiscal year 2025 where they awarded 25.4 billion. This makes NASA's budget for 2026 roughly equivalent to their annual budget for 1980, which adjusted for inflation, worked out to $18.925 billion.
To break it down, the budget recommends an increase of $647 million for human space exploration, specifically targeting Mars focused programs. This is to include the cancellation of the robotic sample return mission, which will now be the responsibility of missions. As per NASA's previous plans, these missions were scheduled for the 2030s where accrued missions would arrive on Mars, obtaining the sample cache collected by the Perseverance Rover and return them to Earth for analysis.
However, due to budget concerns and lack of progress with many elements of the Moon to Mars mission architecture, NASA and the ESA agreed to a sample return mission that these samples in the meantime. This was to consist of an orbit helicopter. Now due to budget concerns and shifting priorities that began in 2017 with the Declaration of the Artemis program, key elements of the Moon to Mars mission were moved to the back burner and received no additional funding or research.
This included the Deep Space Transport and the Mars Base Camp, both of which were essential to NASA's long-term vision for sending crewed missions to Mars. The Mars sample return mission has been suffering setbacks and has been in budget limbo now for several years. Per the report, this program is now unaffordable and grossly over budget, hence its cancellation.
Also, per the report, it appears that crewed missions are now being targeted again for the 2030s by NASA, but no indication of how these will be accomplished with the cancellation of the SLS, Orion, and Gateway. Similarly, the Artem Program is facing some major restructuring in the face of deep cuts to its funding.
All told, the budget recommends a reduction of 879 million for legacy human exploration systems, which as noted include the SLS and the Orion spacecraft after the Artemis three mission is conducted. Ghe gateway will no longer be deployed thus putting an end to a long and costly [00:05:00] development program that has been plagued by delays, which are interestingly largely the result of the previous Trump administration's plans.
As per NASA's 2016 mission architecture, the SLS was to deliver the elements of the Lunar Gateway into lunar orbit, which would be integrated with a reusable lunar lander, as well as the Esprit refueling module contributed by the European Space Agency and built by Thales Alenia Space.
The first crewed mission back to the Moon would then take place in 2028, with the SLS delivering the crew Orion spacecraft to the gateway, which would then take the reusable lunar lander down to the surface with elements of the Artemis base camp, which would include the surface rover, a pressurized rover, and other items needed to conduct surface operations.
However, in 2019, Vice President Mike Pence announced the timetable for the Artemis Program would expedited by four years, with a new target date for a lunar landing now set for 2024. Since NASA could not guarantee the deployment of the gateway by this date, the Gateway was deprioritized and the contract for launching the station's core elements was outsourced to SpaceX.
As per their plan, a Falcon Heavy would launch the Power and Propulsion Element and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost in 2024, a few months prior to the Artemis Three mission. That date has since been pushed forward to 2027. In the meantime, without the Gateway and reusable lander, NASA was forced to investigate alternatives.
By 2020, they awarded another contract to SpaceX to develop a Human Landing System that would utilize a modified version of the Starship. Nevertheless, the gateway remained a key element in the Artemis Program, which was still to be completed by 2028 with the delivery of the International Habitation Module using the SLS.
NASA will be forced to investigate alternatives yet again, given that these key elements are all set to be canceled after 2027. As the report states:
"SLS alone costs $4 billion per launch and is 140 percent over budget. The budget funds a program to replace SLS and Orion flights to the Moon with more cost-effective commercial systems that would support more ambitious subsequent lunar missions. The budget also proposes to terminate the Gateway, a small Lunar space station in development with international partners, which would've been used to support future SLS and Orion missions."
As expected, Earth science is also being cut, similar to Trump's first administration. In particular, the Landsaat Next mission is considered an example of low priority climate monitoring satellites. This satellite was to be launched by late 2030 or early 2031, and would build on the successes of its predecessors, which have been providing scientists with real-time climate data for years.
The Landsaat Next would offer improved measurements and better temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions, which would have applications and everything from monitoring forest fires and foliage patterns to address them climate change. Instead, NASA has been directed to restructure these $2 billion emission until to more affordable ways to maintain the continuity of Landsat imagery.
In total, one billion, 161 million are being cut from Earth Science while another $531 million is being cut from NASA Space Technology research. According to the budget, this represents approximately half of NASA's space technology division and specifically targets, quote, "failing space propulsion projects."
While these are not specifically named, it is highly likely that these refer to NASA's research into nuclear propulsion, a program that ended with the closing of the Apollo years, but has since been revitalized since 2016. In 2023, this research led to a partnership between NASA and DARPA to develop the Demonstrational Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or Draco.
This nuclear thermal propulsion concept would be built by Lockheed Martin and demonstrated in orbit by 2027. The system is intended to dramatically reduce the transit times to Mars, whereas it currently would take six to nine months for a conventional mission to make the journey. Estimates indicate that a nuclear thermal propulsion concept could do the same in about 90 to a hundred days.
In any case, the budget once again recommends that the commercial space sector would be a more cost-effective alternative than NASA's own research, stating "the reductions also scale back or eliminate technology projects that are not needed by NASA or better suited to private sector research and development."
Meanwhile, another $346 million was cut from aeronautics research, specifically programs that are concerned with "green aviation" and "climate-focused approaches." This is likely alluding to attempts to develop electronic aircraft powered by solar panels and batteries, as well as carbon capture technology that would create rocket fuel outta excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere for the session. The budget also emphasizes that it will "protect the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications."
A further one billion, 134 million dollars are being cut from mission support services with the instruction that NASA streamline the workforce, IT services, NASA center operations, facility maintenance and construction, and environmental compliance activities. In short, NASA is being told to cut its workforce and do more with less with an emphasis on efficiency.
Furthermore, the budget contains a $508 million reduction in funding for the International Space Station. This funding will reduce the ISS crew size funds to onboard research and the number of crew and cargo flights to the ISS. This particular item is not surprising given that the ISS is slated for retirement in 2030, and according to the budget office, these cuts reflect the "upcoming transition to a more cost-effective commercial approach to human activities in space. As the space station approaches the end of its lifecycle."
The authors state that the remaining budget will be focused on efforts critical to the Moon and Mars exploration program.
And last and perhaps most glaringly, the budget recommends cuts to the Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics totaling $143 million. As it states, "similar to prior generations thatwere inspired by the Apollo lunar landings, NASA will inspire the next generation of explorers through exciting, ambitious space missions. Not through subsidizing woke STEM programming and research that prioritizes some groups of students over others and have had a minimal impact on the aerospace workforce curriculum."
A quick read of this budget does make a lot of things above clear. For those familiar with the Trump administration's policies, there are very few surprises in this budget. Administration's anti-DEI policies are blatantly clear, as are its environmental stances, vis-a-vis climate change, alternative fuels, and other environmentally sound technologies.
In addition, its emphasis on commercialization, of turning to the private sector to execute key elements of NASA's mission architecture, as well as technology and research development, are certainly in keeping with the Trump administration's first term policy in which vital aspects of the Moon to Mars mission architecture (specifically those that focus on the moon and became part of Project Artemis) were outsourced to companies like SpaceX. This has created all manner of complications and difficulties in mission design and mission synthesis.
Originally, NASA had a step-by-step plan for how to return astronauts to the Moon and then send them on to Mars. What they are currently left with is a program that, while it emphasizes beating China to the Moon and to Mars, it disables several key aspects of those efforts.
It also makes it abundantly clear that some of the worst fears that NASA employees and Assistant Administrators have had since the Trump administration was inaugurated are valid. More jobs are being targeted, more funding is being cut, more research programs will be shuttered without any apparent reason or logic behind them.
Instead, it seems motivated by politics, ideology to cut funding to public programs, and a desire to create more opportunities for the private space sector. Most notably SpaceX, and its CEO and most notable Trump ally, Elon Musk.
In this respect, the 2026 fiscal year budget resembles the cuts being made by DOGE to government agencies, workers. And like those cuts and other decisions by DOGE, which include assuming control of government databases and operating systems in order to rewrite code are destined to result in chaos and the widespread disruption of services.
The budget is also visibly, and it would seem deliberately cruel when it comes to diversity and NASA's employment policies. Major figures are being erased from their archives merely because the current administration and the Department of Government Efficiency is actively purging government databases and archives of any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
While NASA has sought to maintain its leadership in space and has been committed to sending astronauts back to the Moon and to be the first to send crewed missions to Mars, it is unclear at this point if it will be able to accomplish any of these goals.
It is also unclear if the current administration's anti-DEI initiatives will affect astronaut selection for the Artemis Three crew. For more than a decade, NASA has been very upfront about its commitment to ensuring that the next astronauts to land on the Moon will be the "first woman and first person of color." This is in keeping with NASA's commitment to diversity and representation in all aspects of space exploration, research, and science, as well as its commitment to the ideals expressed in the historic Outer Space Treaty: that space is for ALL humanity.
Under the current administration, that too could change. Per the proposed budget, NASA will be forced to reinvent its mission architecture for everything beyond 2027, and it is unclear if the Mars missions will have to be pushed back further as a result. While Artemis three may reach the lunar surface before a Chinese mission, which is expected to happen by 2030, there are no guarantees beyond.
In addition, any disruption to NASA's centers could lead to further delays in the development of the SLS Orion and all elements required to return astronauts to the Moon in this decade. As has been the case for quite some time, NASA faces lean times ahead. How the administration will adapt and how it'll manage to maintain some of its most vital and important objectives remains to be seen.
Be sure to tune in next time, where we'll be speaking with commercial astronaut, aquanaut, physician, scientist, and explorer Dr. Shawna Pandya. She's also a pilot in training and a fellow Canadian and Martial Artist. We'll also take a look at the James Webb Space Telescope and the naming controversy that stills endures. And some more exciting interviews with people who at forefront of space exploration and research, and who are looking to ensure that the future of humanity in space is achievable and sustainable.
In the meantime, thank you for listening. I'm Matt Williams, and this has been Stories from Space.