Donald Trump is tightening the purse strings on NASA, and while the President of the United States plans to spend some $175 billion on his Golden Dome defense system, all those extra dollars have to come from somewhere.
Taking the fight to DC, Bill "The Science Guy" Nye is leading the charge as the CEO of the Planetary Society. Visiting Capitol Hill to protest against Donald Trump's budget cuts, the head of the non-profit space organization warned how the POTUS could be putting NASA in danger.
It's an exciting time for NASA and the space program, with 2026's Artemis II being the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972. However, it's not all champagne corks popping and rockets launching.
As reported by ABC, Trump's budget proposal would slash NASA's funding by 24% for the 2026 fiscal year. After receiving $24.8 billion in fiscal 2025, that could drop to just $18.8 billion in the next fiscal year.
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Of the cuts, around $6 billion is expected to hit NASA's planetary science, Earth science, and astrophysics research funding. These all form part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The Science Mission Directorate is in charge of sending satellites like the James Webb Space Telescope into space, the Mars Perseverance Rover that recently captured our first apparent glimpse of 3I/ATLAS, and the Landsat 9 satellite. The Science Mission Directorate ensures that NASA can "achieve scientific understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe."
Nye reiterated: "We’re not talking about delays in scientific exploration, we’re talking about the end of it.
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“While we’re checking out, our competitors are checking in."
In particular, there's an outlined 47% cut to the agency's science research funding. It's something the Planetary Society has called an "extinction-level event for space exploration."
Calling out the President, Nye reiterated: "NASA science is a bargain. For every dollar spent, at least three come back into the economy.”
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While ABC reached out to NASA for comment, it's still closed as part of the current government shutdown.
Speaking to ANC News Live on Monday, Nye added: "Cutting NASA science in half would end several missions that are spacecraft that are already flying and several missions that are scheduled to fly.
“And why this matters is if you cut it in half, cut the science budget in half, you'll probably turn the whole thing off."
Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, said the organization's modus operandi is to protect existing programs: "So, this is no new money, it's no changes in policy, it's just to continue these projects that we've already invested in, already paid for and are currently returning in fantastic science."
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Dreir went on to explain: "Both House and Senate [are] a near-full rejection of the proposed cuts to NASA science and broadly around other areas of NASA as well.”
Trump's proposal called more than 40 NASA projects, including the Mars orbiter MAVEN and the Juno mission, 'unaffordable', concluding: "The Budget proposes termination of multiple unaffordable missions and reduces lower priority research, resulting in a leaner Science program that reflects a commitment to fiscal responsibility."