The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA's budget by $6 billion, or about 25% of the agency's total funding. At the same time, $1 billion of the remaining funds are planned to be directed to programs focused on Mars exploration. This approach is in line with the ambitions of Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, which has long aimed to send humans to Mars, CNBC reports.
The document released by NASA states that the agency will focus its resources on returning the United States to the Moon before China, as well as on preparing for the first human landing on Mars. To do this, NASA will have to reduce staff numbers, optimize IT services, reduce costs for maintaining centers and facilities, and close a number of overly expensive projects.
NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petrov told staff that budget constraints would require difficult decisions, and some areas of the agency's operations would be scaled back.
Under the plan, NASA will retire the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion spacecraft, and Gateway programs. It will also halt funding for green aviation development and cancel the Mars Sample Return Program, which was supposed to return samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth for research.
The biggest cuts will be in the space and earth sciences divisions, as well as mission support. However, private companies, including SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin, will continue to launch space missions, which will be able to provide flights without using SLS.
Elon Musk, a key figure in the Trump administration and a driving force behind federal spending cuts, has long promoted the idea of a trip to Mars. He has said that SpaceX could land humans on Mars by 2026, although his predictions have often been overly optimistic.
It was also announced that Jared Isaacman, a tech entrepreneur, has been nominated to head NASA. His nomination still needs to be confirmed by the US Senate, although it has already been approved by the relevant Senate committee.