American scientists lament: NASA's budget for next year may be halved, which might prevent the Mars sample return!
Moreover, most current and in-development scientific missions may be completely canceled.
On April 17, SpaceNews published an article.
The report indicates that the Trump administration may cut nearly 50% of NASA's science budget for 2026.
Last week, reports began circulating online that the Trump administration might cut NASA's science budget by nearly half in the next fiscal year.
Such a decision could lead to the closure of the Goddard Space Flight Center, cancel the highly anticipated Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, and even disrupt active spacecraft like Voyager.
Many American scientists expressed concerns about this. Casey Dreier, head of space policy at The Planetary Society, said: "In such a situation, we will see most current and in-development scientific missions being completely canceled."
Now, the bipartisan U.S. Congress Planetary Science Caucus has also joined the discussion: "We are extremely shocked by the reports of the White House preliminary budget."
Even the James Webb Space Telescope faces a possible 20% budget cut.
In the statement, the co-chairs also noted that cutting NASA's funding could jeopardize America's goal of becoming the first country to send humans back to the moon in over 50 years, as well as its "national security and defense capabilities," which have become a key aspect of space science as countries like Russia and China strengthen their own space military capabilities.
They also said: "We must work together to maintain America's dominance in space."
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829599115531274/
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