Congress will ultimately weigh in on whether the devastating cuts to NASA in the President’s budget request become a reality. The Planetary Society has updated their main advocacy page with ways you can take action to “Save NASA” and NASA Space Science: https://www.planetary.org/save-nasa-science. This includes a petition to Congressional leaders (open to people to sign worldwide), a form that will pre-populate and send a message to your representatives, another form that will provide a script and phone numbers to call your representatives, and resources for illustrating the impacts of the proposed cuts. You can even personalize your message or call with some excerpts from GESTA’s Statement below. We encourage you to take these actions and also to share these resources with colleagues, friends and family, to help spread the word!
President Trump claims to support American leadership in space, but the President’s Budget Request (PBR) would do the opposite. The proposed NASA budget cuts are an existential threat to the exploration, scientific research, and technology development NASA is uniquely known for. The budget request would shrink NASA’s budget to the lowest levels since 1961, prior to the start of the Apollo program. It threatens our nation’s leadership in Space and Earth Sciences, requesting ~50% cuts to those programs (50% to Earth Sciences, 30% to Planetary Science, 66% to Astrophysics and 46% to Heliophysics).
The Fiscal Year 2026 “skinny” budget proposal was released by the Trump Administration last Friday. The administration's proposal calls for a 24% reduction to NASA’s total budget and absolutely devastating cuts to Space Science (-44%), Earth Science (-53%), Aeronautics (-37%) and Space Technology (-48%). The budget would also eliminate all STEM educational programs and severely restrict funding to “IT services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, construction and environmental compliance activities”. These proposed cuts have already drawn an extremely negative reaction from the Space community and some political leaders. We encourage you to make your voice heard as well! The Planetary Society had compiled an Advocacy Action Center Webpage that streamlines (providing a template script and contact information) ways to call and write your Congressional representatives to advocate for NASA funding. A reminder to please do so on your personal time, on a personal device, in accordance with the Hatch Act.
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