The New Yorker:

Speaking with David W. Brown, who has written about space for the magazine since 2020, and with an official at the European Space Agency.

The White House recently proposed the smallest nasa budgetsince the dawn of human spaceflight, after adjusting for inflation. We spoke with David W. Brown, who has written about space for the magazine since 2020, and with an official at the European Space Agency.

What does this mean for the future of America’s space program?

The proposal “doesn’t cut to the bone—it just lobs off limbs,” Brown told us. It would axe countless satellites and instruments; decommission solar-system probes that are already under way; and finish OSIRIS-APEX, a program that aims to help protect Earth from a catastrophic asteroid strike.

A Trump Administration press release said that the proposal “accelerates human space exploration of the Moon and Mars,” in part by investing a billion dollars in missions that aim to land astronauts on Mars—a Trump campaign promise and a priority of his former adviser Elon Musk. But next to the astronomical costs of such missions, Brown noted, “That’s like tipping your waiter a dime.”

The proposal has also rattled nasa’s partners. “It’s a disaster,” an E.S.A. official told us. “Basically, if you go through it, it means that there’s no E.S.A.–nasa collaboration left.” Joint projects that Europe has already funded may wither. One U.S.-funded instrument that could be terminated is modis, a satellite-based climate sensor that collects, among other information, fire data for the entire world. “We’re really concerned,” the official said. “And we don’t have an alternative.”

Congress could counter with its own budget proposal for the space agency, as it has in past Administrations. But Brown pointed out that some of nasa’s current leaders are already implementing deep staffing cuts that the Trump Administration has ordered. As an engineer at the agency recently texted Brown, “nasa is jumping up to the sword of Damocles before it has a chance to drop.”

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