The News
US President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal includes a 24% cut in funding for NASA that would see several of its flagship programs scrapped.
Among them are the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft: Designed to return humans to the Moon, both vehicles have been widely criticized for running over budget and behind schedule.
The administration’s proposal notes that the SLS alone is 140% over budget, yet has only ever flown to space once — and each subsequent launch would cost about $4 billion.
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The cuts also imperil billions of dollars in federal contracts already awarded to America’s aerospace industry: Lockheed Martin is building a fourth Orion spacecraft for a Moon mission that Trump’s budget would eliminate, for example.
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