Despite proposed science cuts, NASA boss says 'We haven't canceled anything yet'
- Reference: 1777383010
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/28/despite_proposed_science_cuts_nasa/
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ESA starts work on planetary defence mission, because Bruce Willis is retired [1]READ MORE
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), the committee's chairman, [2]extended his congratulations to NASA, Isaacman, and all those involved in recognition of the Artemis II mission before telling the administrator how disappointed he was.
"After all the success and momentum NASA has built up over the last year," Rogers said, "it's disappointing to see that request."
The FY2027 budget request for NASA cuts funding by 23 percent and reduces the Science Mission Directorate by 46 percent, down to $3.9 billion. To put those figures in context, the first week of the US's war against Iran cost well over $10 billion, [3]according to reports .
Dozens of missions are at risk, some in the planning stages, and some are active. The Planetary Society provided a helpful [4]list and [5]commentary from scientists on some of the endangered missions.
[6]
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is either on the chopping block or facing deployment in phases. It is a flagship-class mission and so carries a high price tag as currently designed. Evgenya Shkolnik, PhD, said, "Canceling HWO would destroy humanity’s first real opportunity to detect life on another planet."
[7]
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Then there is NASA's contribution to the European Space Agency's "snakebit" Mars trundlebot, which the agency has committed to launching but for which no funding has been allocated. After its ride to the red planet on a Russian rocket was canceled following the invasion of Ukraine, the rover was meant to launch on a NASA-provided rocket. Its cancellation would mean, at best, more delays for the mission to find signatures of life.
[9]Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope trumps Trump cuts, is launch-ready ahead of schedule
[10]NASA reckons the Artemis II heat shield performed like a champ
[11]NASA Inspector fears new spacesuits won't be ready for Moon landing
[12]NASA working on 'Big Bang' upgrade to keep the Voyagers alive for longer
Active assignments are also under threat. In 2022, NASA announced an extension for the OSIRIS-Rex mission. The primary objective – collecting a sample from the asteroid Bennu – was complete. The sample was returned to Earth in 2023, but since the spacecraft was still healthy, it was directed on an extended mission to inspect a near-Earth asteroid. Renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer, for the asteroid it is headed to), the spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in 2029.
However, if cut, the spacecraft will be silenced.
And the list goes on. Much as it did last year. In fact, the whole process carries a whiff of déjà vu about it following 2025's budget proposal, which was [13]dubbed "an extinction event for science and exploration in the United States" by observers.
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The same language is being used again as the latest budget's implications are digested. Last week, Casey Drier, Chief of Space Policy for the Planetary Society, [15]wrote , "An extinction-level event can be thought of as a sudden, external calamity wiping out a given species. For the dinosaurs, it was the Chicxulub impactor.
And now something fun for a change: Building blocks of life in Bennu asteroid samples [16]READ MORE
"For NASA's science program, it very well may be the FY 2027 Presidential Budget Request."
Pressed on why more than 50 missions were omitted from budget documents sent to Congress, Isaacman insisted "they are not canceled," but qualified his statement: "a lot of these missions that are in formulation right now have coverage from existing assets."
He went on to suggest that commercial industry could be used for Earth observation missions at least.
This must be a great comfort to scientists pondering the fate of OSIRIS-APEX and its trip to an asteroid. The subcommittee appeared equally unconvinced by Isaacman's insistence that NASA could meet its goals with the budget in the request.
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Lawmakers will have the opportunity to amend the budget request, as they did last year. To coin a phrase, "Aw heck, here we go again." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/esa_ramses_prelim_approval/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/live/iRbb1C0v2G8
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/12/israel-us-iran-war-cost
[4] https://www.planetary.org/articles/82-nasa-missions-at-risk-under-new-proposal
[5] https://www.planetary.org/articles/meet-the-people-behind-nasas-endangered-missions
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2afDZo895hvEshgcT9SS8YgAAAoI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44afDZo895hvEshgcT9SS8YgAAAoI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33afDZo895hvEshgcT9SS8YgAAAoI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/23/nancy_grace_roman_space_telescope/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/22/nasa_artemis_ii_heat_shield/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/21/nasa_oig_spacesuit_report/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/20/voyager_big_bang_upgrades/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/nasa_science_budget_comment/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44afDZo895hvEshgcT9SS8YgAAAoI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.planetary.org/articles/analyzing-the-fy-2027-nasa-budget-request
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/30/asteroid_bennu_life/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33afDZo895hvEshgcT9SS8YgAAAoI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Trump and MAGA Republicans loathe science (after all, science is the search for truth)
It's science's fault for telling Trump what he doesn't want to hear. Facts, for instance.
Re: Trump and MAGA Republicans loathe science (after all, science is the search for truth)
I would like to point out that the Earth definitely is 6,000 years old.
It's estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years old. My personal calculations come to 4,540,006,000 years exactly. It was created on a Tuesday, if that helps? Just after teatime.
Re: Trump and MAGA Republicans loathe science (after all, science is the search for truth)
Obviously it was Tuesday. A loving God would make sure that Adam and Eve's first dinner together in Eden was tacos.
Re: Trump and MAGA Republicans loathe science (after all, science is the search for truth)
Wondering which anti-science extremists are downvoting this.
The Speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson, [1]believes in literal young-earth creationism and, as an attorney, [2]worked to advance creationism in public schools and also [3]blamed school shootings on teaching evolution :
"Johnson’s inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a “young earth creationist”, holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky’s Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That’s why they don’t even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma."
and
“People say, ‘How can a young person go into their schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates?’” Johnson asked the audience. “Because we’ve taught a whole generation — a couple generations now — of Americans, that there’s no right or wrong, that it’s about survival of the fittest, and [that] you evolve from the primordial slime. Why is that life of any sacred value? Because there’s nobody sacred to whom it’s owed. None of this should surprise us.”
Anybody who thinks this guy supports science is a fool.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/04/mike-johnson-theocrat-house-speaker-christian-trump
[2] https://ncse.ngo/how-mike-johnson-helped-open-door-creationism-louisiana-public-schools
[3] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-blamed-shootings-teaching-evolution-abortion-1234863223/
"We haven't canceled anything yet"
Well, except anything that celebrated black or female achievements in NASA.
Disturbing statement
"down to $3.9 billion. To put those figures in context, the first week of the US's war against Iran cost well over $10 billion"
So one week of a illegal war gets more cash than a year of science. Really? And I guess we can just outsource education to the church to save some bucks for some more bombs too.
Trump and MAGA Republicans loathe science (after all, science is the search for truth)
We're dealing with an anti-science administration and Congress which thinks that Covid is a hoax, vaccines kill people, climate change isn't real, Tylenol causes autism, and the world is 6000 years old.
I can't tell whether this NASA administrator knows the game and is in on it (he's a friend of Musk, after all) or whether he's just a terribly naive nerd who didn't understand what he was getting into when Trump promised him power and gave him a ring.
Of all the budgets which go up year after year after year, NASA is not one of them. This is not the mark of an advanced species. Humans should be ashamed.