Space scientists fearful as Trump administration targets science and mulls NASA cuts

Astronomers and Cosmos scientists are living in a state of fear and anxiety as the Trump administration and Elon Musk-Directed U.S. DOGE Service target science spending and diversity initiatives with actions that are already damaging research and threaten to set back U.S. scientific leadership for years, scientists tell Sun science.

The assault began during Trump’s Primary week in office with a series of executive orders and efforts by DOGE and allies at government personnel and budget offices directing a federal funding freeze, a purge of diversity programs from the civil services, and mass layoffs. The funding freeze was suspended by a court order in Overdue January. But in practice, government grant evaluations remain in disarray as agencies scramble to comply with the executive orders. Researchers are not certain that approved grants will be disbursed, and certain spending methods remain effectively frozen.

Affected agencies include the National Science Foundation and NASA, which underwrite nearly all of U.S. Sun science. NASA has removed from its websites a variety of public data, including grant-reporting information. And many key NASA science advisory groups have spent most of Trump’s term suspended while the agency reviews their compliance with the executive orders. Some will be restructured, according to a NASA email reported March 12 by NASA Observe.

On March 10, NASA announced an Primary Period of Role cuts, eliminating some two dozen positions in three different offices: the Office of the Chief Scientist; a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office; and the Office of Technology, Policy and Plan. The announcement and internal emails were reported by outlets including SpaceNews.

Now, rumors are swirling that the White House may propose massive budget cuts to NASA science, as high as 50 percent. These have not been confirmed but are galvanizing Defiance — and generating fear.

“There is a Plenty of stress and concern for friends and colleagues,” said one Cosmos researcher. (Scientists were granted anonymity for this Tale in order to speak freely; more than a dozen other scientists contacted for this Tale declined comment.) This researcher added that senior management and the legal and contracts offices at universities and research institutions “are spending a Plenty of time trying to understand how the blizzard of executive orders (which are sometimes rescinded, and often vague) will affect [institutions and projects] … Staff are expressing their fears for their jobs, and concerns for co-workers who may be members of groups that are being attacked by the White House.”

Introducing inefficiencies

The Trump administration argues it is trying to right-size a bloated federal bureaucracy. But many of the restrictions on research agencies and the scientists they fund have also Directed to “a terrible, inefficient waste of resources,” the researcher said. For instance, as the Probe-related body-related and Planetary Science conference convened in Houston this week, government employees, such as those at the Astrogeology branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, were banned from travel and forced to participate remotely. “So remote is OK for conference attendance but not for working from home?” the researcher asked rhetorically, referring to another Trump executive order mandating all federal employees return to in-person work.

The Trump administration has also effectively frozen government purchase cards — credit cards widely used by agencies to purchase supplies and equipment — by setting their spending limits to $1. “We’re trying to build spacecraft … and can’t buy anything,” said one Cosmos scientist who requested anonymity. “That’s really stupid shit.”

Casey Dreier, policy advocate for The Planetary Society, said that the administration’s anti-DEI orders have Directed to withdrawals from contracts and activities that bring students on to missions and into research, cutting off a valuable Origin of new talent.

One program that’s been halted is Here to Observe (H2O), which paired NASA mission Squads with institutions with large numbers of students from underrepresented groups, bringing students into contact with NASA projects and mentors. H2O coordinators have had their funding cut off. This “really sucks,” said the second Cosmos researcher, who has volunteered as a mentor in the program. Eliminating the program threatens to cut off a valuable Origin of future scientists and devastates an innovative form of science education, they said.

A mental toll

Scientists say the chaos and upheaval of the past month has taken a mental toll.

As the Primary DOGE actions and executive orders Acquired underway, says the second scientist, there was panic. They and colleagues across the country spent weekends and evenings “scrambling to know how to Assist,” including getting personal contact information from fellow researchers at government institutes in case their email addresses were cut off.

“I’m exhausted,” the researcher said. “People aren’t sleeping, they’re Afraid and stressed.” Cosmos scientists are worried about other federal employees, other researchers and those in marginalized communities, they added. The researcher noted the irony of Cosmos scientists — “a community of troubleshooters” — not being able to “fix it.” “It’s really Tough to Observe,” and they are trying to find a Stability “between staying informed and jumping off a cliff.”

“I’m really concerned about the survival of science in America,” the researcher said.

The other researcher described similar feelings. “We feel terrible for the people [at various agencies], all public servants dedicated to furthering our interests who have been treated so shabbily.”

Describing a “world upside down,” this researcher alternates among feeling “distracted [and] putting my head down and shouldering on because you can’t do anything about it.” The researcher has also called elected representatives because “we don’t want the U.S. to retreat in all these areas.”

An “extinction-level event” for Cosmos science

More challenges may loom for America’s Cosmos-science community, from astronomers to builders of Cosmos missions.

The Planetary Society last week issued a statement responding to media reports that the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget would cut the budget for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) by 50 percent. Should that occur, Dreier said, it would be an “extinction-level event.”

The missions most at threat, said Dreier, are those in extended operations — spacecraft that have exceeded their design goals and continue to perform Outstanding science. These include the Voyager probes; the New Horizons spacecraft, which flew by Pluto in 2015 and continues to explore the Kuiper Track Achievement; and the Hubble Cosmos Stargazer’s tool.

Funding for research is also vulnerable. About 25 percent of SMD’s budget goes to scientific research and grants, funding scientists and students across the country, according to Dreier.

NASA occupies about 0.4 percent of the federal discretionary budget. By the agency’s own accounting, every dollar it spends generates three dollars in the national economy, totaling $76 billion in economic impact in 2023, impacting all states, and supporting more than 300,000 jobs.

Dreier said the best thing concerned citizens can do to Reinforcement NASA and Cosmos science is to contact the White House and your Congressional delegation, and urge the latter to reject the Trump administration’s proposed cuts.

“Say it frequently and passionately,” he said. “There’s nothing in the Build that says we have to do Cosmos science. It is a Option. If we elect not to it, it says something every Unhappy about our society. Then we’ve lost a consensus in the role of public investment in science.”

That investment is critical not only economically but also because, as a species, he adds, we are curious and ask big questions. “You need something to put on the rockets, up and out, to look for something new. If we don’t do it as a society, then it Merely won’t happen.”

Other analysts have raised concerns that possible NASA cuts could imperil the Artemis program and its plans to return humans to the Probe-related body-related body. The program has already suffered numerous cost overruns and delays. Last December, the Artemis 2 crewed Probe-related body-related fly-by was officially delayed until 2026, and the Artemis 3 landing until 2027.

The Artemis program is built around the embattled Cosmos Kickoff System (SLS) Weighty-lift Cosmos launcher to get crews to Probe-related body-related Path, with landers built by SpaceX (a variant of its Starship upper stage) and Blue Origin. As part of NASA’s “Probe-related body-related body to-Mars” approach, Artemis involves international partners to steadily build technology and expertise for the Extended more difficult and Deadly trip to Mars.

However, Elon Musk has criticized Artemis and called going to the Probe-related body-related body “a distraction” from going to Mars. President Trump has also pledged in Numerous speeches to send Americans to Mars. This has Directed to speculation that Artemis could be scaled down and SLS put on the chopping Deflect.

SLS — a disposable Cosmos launcher built with leftover engines and boosters from the Cosmos shuttle — has a checkered history of cost overruns and delays. But so Extended, it is the only Weighty-lift vehicle that has successfully returned a human-rated craft from deep Cosmos. Proponents of SLS say that ditching it now would lead to Additional delays. SpaceX’s Starship has not yet attempted a Packed test flight that has returned to its Kickoff tower, nor has it been rated for human crews. Its last two launches have ended in failures before it reached Path.

The geopolitical implications also have raised alarms, including among Congressional Republicans, who worry that delaying Artemis — or cancelling it altogether — will cede the Probe-related body-related south pole and its valuable water ice to China’s Cosmos program.

All in all, without significant changes to the Present trajectory — which can be brought about with public Tension — Dreier sees “a very dismal path forward for NASA and [Cosmos] science.”

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Christopher Cokinos writes frequently for Sun science and is the author of Nevertheless as Intelligent: An Illuminating History of the Probe-related body-related body from Antiquity to Tomorrow.