Months after Congress voted against the Trump administration’s brutal NASA budget proposal for fiscal year 2026, the White House renewed its effort to deal a severe blow to the space agency’s science directorate.
Earlier this month, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposed top request for 2027, which would cut NASA’s science budget by up to 47% and slash the agency’s overall funding by up to 23%. The move highlights the Trump administration’s persistent and uncompromising anti-science agenda, once again sparking outrage from space advocacy groups.
Worse, as Casey Dreier, head of space policy for the Planetary Society, puts it Space.comThe latest document is extremely vague, failing to specify which space science mission will land. It even refused to list the previous year’s funding levels, a startling departure from the organization’s 60-year history.
“There are two things: a staggering lack of transparency and a refusal to acknowledge political reality,” Dreier said. “This is the least transparent NASA budget request I have ever seen — and I have literally looked closely at every request since 1960.”
Dreier also pointed out that the White House is allocating $438 million to “Mars Technology” without providing any further cost details.
The 2027 request also appears to ignore Congress’ request to keep NASA well-funded. Lawmakers have strongly opposed the White House’s proposed 2026 budget, which Dreier described as an “extinction-level event for space science and exploration in the United States” last year.
In other words, the Trump administration’s latest request amounts to a “copy-paste budget” from its last effort, as Dreier put it. Space.comcalled it “sloppy and unprofessional.”
The document even includes serious errors that could easily have been detected, Dreier notes: it lists the Mars Sample Return mission as a line item even though it was canceled last year, and misrepresents the fiscal year for funding for NASA’s groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope.
While funding for future Moon missions including NASA’s signature Artemis program remains intact, space science – which relies on long-term public funding – could take a big hit.
“That’s the core reason why we make public investments in basic science,” Dreier said. Space.com. “Just because SpaceX is great and launches rockets doesn’t mean it’s now easy to collect high-quality scientific data on Mars.”
“These two activities are very different, but they are often combined,” he added.
Despite the document’s errors and ambiguities, NASA’s leadership has steadfastly supported the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle much of the agency’s scientific mission. Administrator Jared Isaacman defended the 2027 budget proposal, saying CBS News that this agency still has enough resources to “go to the Moon”.
He also told CNN in a separate interview that “NASA’s science budget is larger than every other space agency in the world combined.”
“I strongly support the President’s fiscal policies and the mandate to promote efficiency,” Isaacman wrote in an April 3 memo to NASA employees, as quoted by Space news.
NASA’s fate is once again in the hands of lawmakers. Considering how their 2026 proposal plays out, it’s likely that a bipartisan group in Congress will once again reject the White House’s request.
Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-KS) argued in a statement this week that gutting funding for science missions would be a “mistake.”
“I will try to lead the subcommittee and the entire committee to get us into a position where we are funding NASA, NOAA and our other agencies in a manner that is pretty similar to what we did last year,” he said.
However, the upcoming midterm elections may soon complicate matters, delaying the almost guaranteed amendment.
In short, OMB’s latest budget request appears to be a clumsily constructed document intended to hinder rather than support NASA’s activities, underscoring the White House’s blatant disregard for anything that doesn’t involve sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars.
“Members of both parties understand that dismantling the United States’ space science program is a strategic mistake, wasteful and short-sighted,” Dreier said. Space.com.
More information about NASA’s budget: The White House is still trying to cut NASA’s budget