Trump administration seeks major budget cuts for NASA programs
The Donald Trump administration is seeking cost savings, and one potential source is a proposed 25 percent reduction in NASA's budget. These financial cuts will inevitably affect the agency's programs and could mean the end of development for the SLS rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and the Lunar Gateway base.
NASA's budget, currently around $25 billion, is expected to be cut to $19 billion next year, according to documents containing recommendations for next year's United States budget published by the Office of Management and Budget.
The 25 percent reduction is set to impact not only NASA's current operations but also its research projects and long-term programs. Although the U.S. is formally not withdrawing from the prestigious race for a manned moon landing, Donald Trump wants to halt work on solutions that were anticipated to make it possible in the near future.
Instead of the agency's programs, which are to be gradually phased out, commercial solutions are preferred. According to the authors of the recommendations, these offer a better cost-to-effectiveness ratio.
The end of the great rocket
Among the casualties of the proposed cuts is the SLS rocket, which has been deemed too costly and, due to budget overruns, unfeasible. The presidential recommendation notes:
The SLS, or Space Launch System, is a heavy launch vehicle that was intended to take humans to the Moon in the near future. The powerful rocket in its currently tested version (first launch in 2022), Block 1, is 322 feet tall and can carry up to 154,000 pounds of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Its developmental variant, Block 2, was supposed to be even longer at 36 feet and capable of carrying up to 286,000 pounds of payload to LEO. SLS rockets were meant to send the Orion spacecraft into space, which, in its crewed version, had been developed for lunar and Mars exploration.
Cancellation of the SLS, Orion, and Gateway programs
These plans—if the presidential recommendations are adopted—are no longer valid. Both the SLS program, which has cost about $35 billion so far, and the development of the Orion spacecraft, which has cost approximately $26 billion, are to be canceled.
The program for building the Gateway base, which was supposed to operate in lunar orbit starting in 2027, is also set to end. Its first and most crucial module, HALO, was completed in early April 2025.
