Fresh off the heights of Artemis II, Trump wants a lower NASA budget

The Artemis II was still flying toward the moon when the Trump administration presented its proposed budget for NASA for the next fiscal year. As with the previous year’s proposal, the White House suggested cutting the space agency’s overall budget by 23 percent, and its science, aeronautic and education accounts by 47 percent.

As it did last year, Congress took a dim view of the White House’s budget. That much was apparent when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman appeared before the House Science Committee to explain the proposal. Isaacman was confirmed as NASA administrator after the NASA budget proposal was put together. Nevertheless, he was obliged to defend it, which he did adroitly.

Isaacman asserted that some of the cuts dealt with duplicate programs, especially in the education accounts. He also suggested that commercializing some Earth science and space science missions would free up money for some of the larger, flagship missions that only NASA could fund. 

Two examples of such missions that made it into the budget are the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, due to be launched in early September of this year on a Falcon Heavy, and the Dragonfly drone to Saturn’s moon, Titan. Separately, NASA is planning a nuclear-propelled Mars probe to test the technology that can reduce interplanetary trip times.

The fact that Isaacman knows how to stretch a dollar, being able to finance two private space missions, supported his arguments. One got the impression that his words, while received respectfully........

© The Hill