NASA Forecast For September 2025

Keith’s note: OK so I am ‘back’. Thanks for all the kind words, support etc. Let’s get down to business. The month of September is going to be the hardest yet for NASA. Multiple budget profiles will collide with one another – in an inelastic fashion. Missions will be on hold and operate in holding pattern mode. Other missions will simply die at the hands of budgeteers. And the people of NASA – regardless of where their paycheck comes from – will still be called upon to lead humanity’s exploration of space while being stressed from multiple directions. Meanwhile, the political people inside the glass doors on the 9th floor of NASA HQ simply don’t care what happens to the agency’s workforce – or keeping them informed. As if you had not already figured that out. That said, NASA is already ‘Great In Space”. No “Again” required. Despite the political rhetoric over the years, NASA has begun humanity’s expansion into interstellar space (see image). No one else has done that. And NASA’s lead will be rather hard to eclipse. Anyway – here is my top ten take on things to be aware of in September . Warning – it is not pretty – but it is also not without hope. [More below]

[1] The Presidential Budget Request (PBR) for FY 2026 is what NASA has been directed to implement on 1 October 2025. The “Big Beautiful Bill” gave NASA money but it is not being released. The House and Senate have come up with their increases for NASA – but not for everything; and there will likely be a Continuing Resolution (CR) in place that will be somewhere in between. And the White House can use recision to claw back money in any case. Again, NASA has directed senior staff that the PBR is their new budget. So get used to all of the bad news.

[2] Agencies laid off/paid off a bunch of employees but none of them have fully met the draconian personnel shedding goals that OMB has set. At NASA there are RIF plans. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. An agency-wide RIF seems unlikely but focused RIFs at centers, directorates, or missions/programs are seemingly more likely. When the fiscal year ends, and PBR becomes the de facto plan, NASA’s shyness about more layoffs will likely evaporate and the RIFs will drop into place.

[3] Without getting too partisan, it is obvious that a lack of support for real science is disappearing across government. Even without RIFs or cuts, the PBR and other rhetoric has already made it clear that anything at NASA (and NOAA, NSF etc.) related to climate change or Earth science is to be de-emphasized. Words relating to this have been put on a do-not-use list. Other crucial science programs are going to get thrown out too since they do not align with the new Flags and Footprints Make Space Great Again thing. So even if some of these programs manage to survive, no one will be allowed to highlight any of what is left.

[4] Even before the current budget and personnel crisis NASA was already beset with cost overruns and delays – most notably in Artemis and Mars Sample Return. The PBR truncated a lot of Artemis but left nothing specific in its place. MSR is deep within several layers of limbo. Artemis will hobble along under any budget environment before a re-plan is put in place. So long as they get the lunar Photo Op that the White House desires. Other missions may get reprieves – but only enough to kick the can down the road with regard to overt cancellation. And the longer the lack of clarity persists, the more these things in limbo will erode, whither, and fade.

[5] There will be a push to implement as much of PBR as possible before a final FY 2026 budget is in place. NASA will be in ‘Beat the Clock’ mode. NASA will rush out of the gate trying to implement as much damage as possible to its portfolio before Congress reigns the cuts in. Two steps forward, one step back, etc. But the damage will already have been done in many instances and reversals or reinstatements will be problematical – if not impossible.

[6] Lets be clear: the de facto Administrator of NASA is the NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes. He holds the NASA workforce in distain and only pays lip service to NASA’s mission when it aligns with momentary PR guidance from the White House. Sean Duffy has another day job – so, at most, he is a part-time NASA Administrator and defers to Hughes. But in talking to people who interact with Duffy, they report that behind the official political memes he is genuinely fond of NASA. There are names being vetted and circulated at OPM and the White House for a permanent Administrator, but so many other things seem to distract any movement on that. So the status quo will be in place for a while. With regard to Hughes and Duffy, I’ll take Duffy’s affection for NASA over Hughes’ distain for NASA any day.

[7] Strategic Plans are something NASA used to produce a lot of – even if they were never especially “strategic” or an actual “plan” i.e. They always took whatever NASA was doing and worked in reverse to make it look like there was an actual plan. Decadal advice from the science and engineering community was more strategic and often acted as a stand-in for the actual plans that NASA never seems to be able to generate. Now that whole process – however inefficient – is moot. NASA will be utilized – as are other agencies – to implement whatever broader media and policy strategy du jour that this administration wants to push out. Cool stuff may happen. Cool stuff may be cancelled. Who knows. Stay tuned.

[8] We all use the word “inspiration” in the same sentence for what NASA does – without blinking. Because it is true – regardless as to whether it is a charted objective or an emergent property. Whether deliberate or incidental, NASA has inspired America and the world in ways that few other national activities ever have. No matter how much is cut, deleted, or re-formatted, NASA will still have that effect on people of all ages in all nations. NASA’s reach – its brand and ability to project soft power – will be diluted and wasted – but it will not die. That said, as long as current priorities are imposed NASA will not be anywhere close to the truly global source of inspiration that it might otherwise be.

[9] NASA is the only space agency to have: visited every planet in our solar system (however you count them); touched the sun; operated two spacecraft in interstellar space with a third preparing to join them; sent humans to walk on another world; discovered more planets orbiting other stars; and nurtured a domestic space sector that dominates the commercial utilization of space. There may be a race in space (again) where America has to beat someone to somewhere by some date – but NASA’s lead will never totally diminish – even if the agency is distracted.

[10] The people of NASA – civil servants, contractor employees, external researchers, interns, citizen scientists – comprise the most astonishing, inspired, and visionary cadre of scientific and engineering expertise ever assembled. Full stop. I am honored to have served this agency during one part of my career. Exploring space is often “calling” to the people of NASA’s extended family. Speaking from personal experience – yes it most certainly is. And you can leave NASA but it never, ever, leaves you. Alas, NASA’s ranks are being devastated simply because there are too many of these inspired people and this Administration has a impersonal body count quota to reach. That said, the NASA family will remain undaunted and undeterred – wherever they end up. Their dreams of exploring the universe will never die and they will pass that along to future generations no matter what. The current darkness will eventually pass. NASA’s family will then be called upon to help rebuild and expand America’s abilities in space – and then some. So hang in there. Ad Astra, Beam Me Up, etc.

Keith