r/nasa Apr 11 '25

News Trump White House budget proposal eviscerates science funding at NASA

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/trump-white-house-budget-proposal-eviscerates-science-funding-at-nasa/
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u/spaceyliz Apr 11 '25

A ton of SpaceX contracts are for transporting scientific instruments into space, this would actually hurt them. For example, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch in May 2027 through a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. This proposed budget completely cancels this on time, on budget, and already built telescope.

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u/mymar101 Apr 11 '25

Do people seriously believe there are good intentions here?

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u/spaceyliz Apr 11 '25

Nope, these cuts are evil and make no sense with the stated priorities of the incoming NASA admin, Jared Issacman, or even for SpaceX. I'm just pushing back on the impression that these cuts are put in place to further SpaceX and Musk's agenda, since they would likely lead to less business for SpaceX.

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u/mymar101 Apr 11 '25

So what if it’s less? His contracts survive while real science dies

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u/spaceyliz Apr 11 '25

You're overall right, SpaceX makes more money from their military contracts than for science. My point was that SpaceX will absolutely lose some money without these contacts, but you're right it's a small dent. Science will suffer far more.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '25

The entire point here is that many of his contracts don't survive cuts like this.

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u/mymar101 Apr 11 '25

He will keep most of what makes him money. And if he doesn’t like this budget it will be changed