Washington — NASA captured the world’s attention again with Artemis II, which took astronauts to the Moon and back for the first time in half a century. But the agency’s scientific projects may again be in jeopardy as the Trump administration makes a renewed push to drastically cut their funding, including to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The cuts, proposed in the Trump administration’s 2027 budget request to Congress, would create further challenges for the already vulnerable Caltech-managed laboratory and could be broadly damaging to U.S. efforts to bring back new discoveries from space. They echo an attempt by the administration last year to cut NASA funding, which Congress rejected.
Although Artemis Project Being billed as laying the foundation for NASA’s crewed missions to Mars, exploring the Red Planet is just one of those efforts that could be underpinned. The rover is currently exploring Mars’ ancient river deltas and the mission to orbit Venus is one of JPL’s partnered projects targeted for cost cuts, according to an analysis of NASA’s budget proposal by the nonprofit Planetary Society.
“It’s not (because) they’re not producing good science anymore. There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” said Casey Dreier, head of space policy at the Planetary Society, which opposed the administration’s similar effort to cut NASA funding last year.
On February 7, 2024, storm clouds overshadow the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
(David McNew/Getty Images)
This time, the administration is asking Congress to cut NASA funding by 23% — including a 46% cut to its science programs, which are responsible for developing spacecraft, sending them into outer space, and analyzing the data they send back.
According to an analysis by the Planetary Society, Proposal 53 would cancel science missions and reduce funding for others. The effort to scale back NASA science comes amid a broader effort by the Trump administration to cut scientific research at federal agencies.
The plan drew swift bipartisan criticism from members of Congress, who rejected the administration’s similar 2026 proposal in January. Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, told last week He said he would work to similarly fund NASA by 2027, saying it would be “a mistake” not to fund science missions.
Moran plans to hold a hearing with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman before the end of April to review the budget request, a spokesman for his office said. The President’s budget request is a request to Congress, which ultimately has the power to allocate funds.
But until Congress enacts its own budget, NASA will use the plan as its road map, which could slow down grants and contracts. Representative Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), whose district includes JPL, said, “The proposal still creates enormous chaos and uncertainty for critical missions, the scientific workforce, and long-term research planning.”
A NASA spokesperson declined to comment Friday. In the budget request, Isaacman wrote that NASA was “pursuing a focused and right-sized portfolio” for its space science missions to align with Trump’s federal cost-cutting goals.
“The budget strengthens U.S. leadership in space science through unprecedented missions, accomplished research, and next-generation observatories,” Isaacman wrote.
Jared Isaacman testifies during his confirmation hearing to become NASA Administrator at the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 3, 2025.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
At JPL — which has led innovation in space science and technology from its La Cañada Flintridge campus for decades — questions were already swirling about the laboratory’s role in the future of NASA’s work.
various round of layoffs In the last two years, refund entangled in it mars sample return mission And a shift by the Trump administration toward lunar exploration and away from the type of scientific work performed by JPL had pushed the laboratory into a challenging period.
Staff departures have continued in recent months, and those who remain are courting outside funding from private investors, selling JPL technology to companies and increasing productivity in hopes of keeping the lab afloat, according to two former employees, who requested anonymity to describe the mood inside the lab.
“If we’re not doing science, what are we doing?” asked a former employee who recently left JPL after being there for more than a decade.
A spokeswoman for the lab declined to comment to The Times, referring to the budget proposal.
Chu, who has pushed for increased funding for NASA science, said the NASA programs marked for cancellation or cuts support thousands of jobs at JPL and other centers. After last year’s layoffs, JPL “cannot afford to lose any more of this expertise,” he said in a statement.
Dreyer said that two of the JPL projects that are about to be canceled are related to Venus. One, Veritas, is in the early stages of development and will serve the lab for the next several years, he said.
The project will be the first U.S. mission to Venus in more than 30 years, Dreier said, and is intended to conduct high-resolution mapping of the planet’s surface and observe its atmosphere.
The Perseverance rover, which is collecting rock and soil samples on Mars, may face spending cuts. The budget request proposes pulling some money strongly to fund other planetary science missions and reducing the “pace of operations” for the rover.
However how can Mars samples be returned to Earth not sureThe rover is still being used to explore the planet and look for evidence of whether it might ever be habitable for life.
Researchers hope that tubes of Martian rock, soil and sediment can eventually be brought back to Earth for study. The team has about a half-dozen more sample tubes to fill and the rover is in good condition, said Jim Bell, a planetary scientist and Arizona State University professor who leads the camera team on Perseverance, which works daily with JPL.
He said NASA’s spending proposal offered “no plan” for the future work of the agency.
“Should people just walk away from their consoles,” Bell asked, “and let these orbiters roam around other planets or rovers on other worlds — just let them die?”
The NASA document did not clearly indicate which programs were targeted for cuts and also did not list which projects were targeted for cancellation. The Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society each analyzed the proposal and found that dozens of projects were canceled without being named in the document.
At NASA, other projects being canceled according to the Planetary Society’s analysis include New Horizons, a spacecraft exploring the outer edge of the solar system; Atmospheric Observation System, a planned project to collect weather, air quality and climate data; and Juno, a spacecraft studying Jupiter.
The administration’s plan also does not prioritize new scientific projects, Bell said, which further jeopardizes long-term job stability and space exploration at centers like JPL.
“We’re going through this long period now with very few opportunities to build these spacecraft,” Bell said. “All NASA centers suffer from a lack of opportunities.”
Last year, the Trump administration proposed cutting NASA’s 2026 funding by nearly half. Instead, Congress allowed Funding in January provided $24.4 billion for the agency — a cut of about 29% instead of the proposed 46%. The 2027 budget request calls for $18.8 billion.
Congress kept allocation of funds for science missions almost stable $7.25 billion For science missions, a reduction of about 1% by 2025. The administration had proposed reducing science investments to $3.91 billion. This time, the budget requests $3.89 billion.
Under the Trump administration, NASA has exert force On exploring the Moon, including this month’s successful Artemis II mission. Isaacman, who defended the proposed cuts. on cnn Last week, the agency’s lunar plans were reported, including a construction project a base on the moon.
The agency has signaled commitment to some existing science missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope, the soon-to-be-launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Dragonfly spacecraft launching to a Saturn moon in 2028, and other projects.
“NASA doesn’t have a topline problem, we just need to focus on executing and delivering world-changing results,” Isaacman said on CNN.
Scientists have urged the government not to choose between funding science and exploration, but to continue investing in both.
“It’s ultimately kind of confusing, especially in the wake of the Artemis II mission,” said Roohi Dalal, deputy director of public policy at the American Astronomical Society. “The scientific community … is providing critical services to ensure that astronauts are able to safely complete their missions, and yet, they are facing these significant cuts.”
