Here’s That Wonderful NASA Budget News
Keith’s note: as I predicted several days ago …. Janet Petro’s latest Embrace the Challenge update: “Today, NASA published a technical supplement to the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request released May 2. The supplement includes the Congressional Justifications for our programs and mission areas, as well as my letter to Congress highlighting key points of the budget request. We are currently assessing the priorities and impacts to our teams and programs, and I have asked our leadership team to move forward with discussing their specific areas with you soon. Please take time to review the additional information on the budget documents online at: https://www.nasa.gov/budget. Looking ahead, there’s growing expectation the Senate will take up the nomination of Jared Isaacman to serve as NASA’s next administrator in the near future. While the timing of a vote hasn’t been officially announced, there is a strong sense of momentum. A confirmation would mark a new chapter in leadership at NASA – one rooted in innovation, vision, and a clear passion for exploration. I know many of you are looking forward to what lies ahead. Embrace the Challenge”
32 responses to “Here’s That Wonderful NASA Budget News”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not much different than what leaked out earlier. And is really just a wishlist from the Administration.
As before in the first Administration, hopefully Congress (and Issacman) will restore some some funding and projects.
Jared has publicly supported MSR, hopefully he’ll have some sway with the WH and Congress.
MSR is 11 billion. A Ford class aircraft carrier is 10 billion. MSR is toast. JPL costed the mission out of existence.
I work on MSR so it saddens me to say this, but it was seriously mis-managed. NASA blew it on this one. Would have been such a cool and important mission for Mars science. I hate to see any cuts but I am not surprised about this one.
They go in-depth with the CS FTE and how many folks are going to get laid off. Some centers get a slight decrease while others get cut nearly half.
This budget calls for eliminating 5,000 civil servant positions from the agency relative to FY25: https://imgur.com/xWyMenN
What an absolute nightmare for NASA.
1/3 of the agency – and then there’s the contractor work force on top of that ….
I see this budget request as being written at the height of the DOGE chaos which seems to be quickly fading into the background, and Congress will most likely push back hard.
Between now and when congress passes the appropriation (which is quite possibly never, like FY25), NASA is required to use the president’s budget as actual planning numbers, and operate accordingly. If and when congress passes something it could be too late to reverse.
The FY26 budget doesn’t retroactively cut the FY25 budget, and NASA is staffed to accommodate the FY25 budget, and the FY25 budget is law. That money has to be spent to do what it was appropriated for. For example RST was on the chopping block in the president’s budget every year in his last term. Obviously NASA didn’t lay off the RST staff and cancel the contracts then rehire and redo them a few months later four times.
That’s not to say the administration won’t try to do something unlawful, they already have. But HHS and NIH were specific ideological targets of the administration, and even then their efforts haven’t been as clean and straightforward as they’d hope so NASA may not seem worth the same trouble.
Interesting that JPL isn’t on the list in the proposal.
They are not civil servants. They work for Caltech.
OK so WTF? What’s the news? What level of funding are they eyeballing at the moment? I know Prez at 18B and House and Senate $24B, what’s the final deal? Or do we wait? Probies need to thank the can kickers.
From the Senate ‘‘NASA Transition Authorization Act’’ a few months back, it shows there is major support for NASA at $25,507,540,000 (MCC25339 Y9G)
And the House similar support late last year with $25,224,640,000 (H. R. 8958)
Reading through them – I’m not all that worried now
I think this request is definitely the low-ball, and Congress will push back some. This request cuts 700 NASA jobs from Texas, 526 from Alabama, 510 from Florida, 554 from Ohio, 100 from Mississipi. That’s 10 Republican senators.
What concerns me is if they haggle over the top-line budget numbers and the administration still just RIFs a third of the workforce because they want to.
We will see what Jared is made out of when he gets confirmed next week…. Do folks get to keep their job or do they end up losing everything?
Sounds like we will not be seeing what he’s made of. Perhaps we’re seeing it now because he opposed the budget. Perhaps it’s because he’s friends with Elon who’s been fistfighting and banging wives of members of administration in a ketamine fueled haze.
I see this budget request as being written at the height of the DOGE chaos which seems to be quickly fading into the background, and Congress will most likely push back hard.
48% of Civil Servants at GSFC are gone. A once thriving center with 3k+ CS folks now down to 1.5k… It’s not looking like a good summer for these folks. Depressing actually.
A proposed cut of 48% to GSFC FTEs, and even JSC/MSFC/KSC, which fared the best, are looking at cutting 20-25%.
Yup, and look at where the acting administrator is from… I can’t imagine a 50% reduction occurring at GSFC, that’s insane. Let’s just hope this is overturned and have the budget back to 25B
39-40% FTE cuts at Langley, Ames, and Glenn Research centers. That is going to be a massive long term hit to NASA’s research, which unfortunately is where most of NASA’s long term economic impact is generated. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s a great way to initiate a death spiral for NASA R&D, and 40% cuts make it a pretty steep descent.
For those talking about congress coming in and rescuing us, be aware that NASA has to plan to the proposed budget and that includes staffing and procurement. Even if congress comes through with some gravy later on, it could be too late.
Though, the Ninth Circuit just upheld the pause on RIFs and reorgs (for now).
If I were Isaacman, I’d be doing everything I could to address the reduction with voluntary separations (VERA/VSIP, maybe DRP 2) and see where we land in October.
Recently left NASA as a high performing engineer who spent time actually getting things done, cutting through red tape, and working as a team across programs agency wide. Most of my branch was doing the bare minimum and needed handholding despite being GS13’s. I saw a lot of willful ignorance. We lost all of our best engineers because our new branch chief was insecure and intolerable…and technically clueless…but willing to throw anyone under the bus to save himself. Now with a couple new hires it is the blind leading the blind.
NASA used to be people first but it is clear it is mission first, to hell with exhausted high performers who are carrying the rest. This was before doge. If you speak up and ask for support you are labeled as a problem or high maintenance. I have personally watched multiple technical GS 14 and 15’s leave because of the deep failures of their management to help resolve workload issues. Leaving on a technical high and mental low is what we call it.
Rather than have engineers leading engineering departments, a lot has switched to having HR related people at the top…who organize parties, ignore actual issues, and encourage status quo or covering yourself rather than openly approaching a problem to solve it. NASA has already changed from the inside out. There are many wonderful people there. There is also a lot of lumps on a log doing nothing but maybe causing problems or hurdles for the performers. Sorry but some people need to go to fix the issue. They can have my list of worst actors, but likely it will be cronies saving themselves and making the systems even more ineffective while technical stars continue to leave in their own. The whole thing is unfortunate.
If you were so frustrated, you should have stayed and fought.
I agree with tutiger87 and partially agree with you. NASA has a lot of good people and bad leaders, and many of those bad leaders are engineers and scientist. Agency leadership seems to overemphasize technical prowess as the key trait to leadership and is more interested in people who look and think like them. Evolve or die. It’s not too late to right this ship.
Def do not want to get into a back and forth because we are really all on the same page…but it was impossible for me to stay. The environment was toxic and my health was suffering. I tried for 8 years (contractor for 7 before then) and won awards and truly supported the teams and mission. I had great camaraderie with those who were clearly working to get difficult things done. I was also a single point failure for years and was expected to work OT every week as a CS! No one else in my branch did…kept hearing that the reward for good work was more work. While my management never followed through on promises. My managers failed me and most of us time and time again. Can you imagine asking for help when it was just too much (and I can handle a lot on my plate) and then being labeled as a problem to people you went above and beyond consistently for? Just nope. One’s job cannot be fighting everyday. It is not sustainable. I loved my job but no job loves you back. So I chose myself instead. I cannot begin to describe how happy I am now that I left, but it is their loss for sure. No regrets. So honestly I could not image what I would have stayed to fight for beyond what I already did. A toxic workplace will change you before you ever change it. I know this to be true after experiencing it. Cheers though. : )
I am not going to dispute bad management but you make this sound like you never ever did anything wrong. Life is not like that and I am not sure the NASAWatch comments section is a substitute for counseling or therapy or a long walk in the woods. Just sayin’. Sorry you left NASA>
I feel you. That’s exactly why I work a number of things outside of this work, to balance and offset things.
Wonder how PAO is gonna spin the budget roll-out this year? It’ll be like offering someone a sh#t-filled Twinkie.
I don’t think PAO is gonna be spinning anything, this proposes cutting their budget in half and eliminating them from every center except HQ
STEM outreach is cut to zero. That’s a very long term negative impact to the US aerospace industry. We will pay for that in ways we can’t even imagine.