Investing in Space: NASA’s months of reckoning

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For half a year now, NASA’s been weathering a storm on every front, from its budget to its chain of command and potential program terminations. Employee uproar was an inevitable chapter of the saga.

A group of 360 current and former NASA employees have penned a letter rebuking “rapid and wasteful changes” across staffing, mission and budgetary cuts at the space agency.

“The last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA’s workforce,” the letter says, noting concerns that the proposed downsizing in personnel and funding are “arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law” and that “the consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire.”

Signatories of the letter, titled the Voyager Declaration, urge the U.S. leadership not to implement “harmful” cuts and dispute “non-strategic staffing reductions,” curtailing research projects, as well as cancelling contracts and participation in international missions or assignments for which Congress has already appropriated funding. It’s no small list of objections raised at a time of broader uncertainty at NASA, which faces significant — and long chronicled — declines in funding and staff, amid a broader White House push to shrink down the federal workforce.

“NASA will never compromise on safety. Any reductions—including our current voluntary reduction—will be designed to protect safety-critical roles,” NASA Spokesperson Bethany Stevens said in an emailed statement. “The reality is that President Trump has proposed billions of dollars for NASA science, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to communicating our scientific achievements. To ensure NASA delivers for the American people, we are continually evaluating mission lifecycles, not on sustaining outdated or lower-priority missions.”

Adding to the tumult, NASA on Monday announced the high-level exit of Makenzie Lystrup, who will end her two-year stint as Goddard Space Flight Center director on Aug. 1. NASA says the step was communicated internally before any knowledge of the letter. It’s not the first loss from the agency’s senior ranks in recent months:  Laurie Leshin stepped down from the director post of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in June.  And more exits could be forthcoming: at the start of the month, Politico reported that at least 2,145 senior-level employees could depart NASA, many serving in core mission sets.

Throughout, NASA — notable for both its own achievements and its substantial contracts to the U.S. private space industry — has remained without long-term leadership, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial pick, tech billionaire and Elon Musk ally Jared Isaacman, was unexpectedly removed from consideration back in May. Sean Duffy, Trump’s transportation secretary, was appointed to hold up the fort as NASA’s interim administrator just this month.

Inevitably, there’s money on the line.  NASA clinched a budget of $24.875 billion last year — 8.5% under its initial request and 2% below the funding of 2023 — that was matched in 2025. Under the Trump administration, the agency battled the possibility of a roughly 25% budget trim in 2026, although the U.S. House of Appropriations subcommittee has pushed back on these cuts. If enacted, the Trump funding proposal of $18.8 billion would have been the smallest NASA budget since before the U.S.’ first crewed Moon landing via the Apollo 11 mission, commemorated this week on July 20.

In a Monday statement, Trump said his administration is “building on the legacy of Apollo 11” and endorsed NASA’s initiatives focused on “returning Americans to the Moon —this time to stay — and putting the first boots on Mars.” Colonizing the red planet has been a vocally stated objective of the U.S. president since his January return to office, echoing the ambitions of his then-ally Musk. The two have since parted ways through an explosive rift, but the dream to land U.S. astronauts on the Moon and Mars has gripped the nation, with a respective 67% and 65% of those surveyed in a CBS News/YouGov pollv now in favor. 

• Illegal to implement NASA cuts before Congress gives green light to budget: Democrats — Democrats on a House committee overlooking NASA’s budget have written a letter to Sean Duffy, the space agency’s new acting administrator, saying it would be “flatly illegal” to proceed with structure and workforce changes before NASA’s budget has been passed through Congress. — Reuters
• South Korea seeks to build a lunar base by 2045 — South Korea is looking to build a moon base within the next 20 years under the country’s new long-term national space exploration roadmap, the Korea AeroSpace Administration said. Seoul also intends to develop a next-generation lunar lander by 2040. — Yonhap
• UK can make ‘major contribution’ to space sustainability, report says — Armed with significant investment and government support, the U.K. could become a “responsible, intelligent and independent leader” in space sustainability, a new report found, noting the country’s opportunities in space manufacturing, drug-making and stem cell harvest. — Physics World
• How Star Trek helped name NASA’s space shuttles — NASA’s first space shuttle, dubbed Enterprise, was initially supposed to be called Constitution, before Star Trek fans intervened. — BBC Future
• Orius builds gravity simulator to examine plant growth — French firm Orius has constructed Gravilab, a gravity simulator with two rotating axes, which will investigate how certain gravity environments impact plant growth. — Hortidaily
• Most Americans favor going to Mars, poll finds — A CBS News/YouGov poll has uncovered that 65% of Americans support the idea of U.S. astronauts going to Mars, while two thirds of those surveyed also back sending U.S. cosmonauts to explore the Moon again. — CBS News

• Linde to ramp up  U.S. air gas capacity to serve space sector — Industrial gas supplier Linde will build a new air separation unit in Texas to increase its capacity and support the U.S. space industry, in line with two agreements to supply liquid oxygen and nitrogen for rocket take-offs. — Gas World
• Golden Dome chief outlines steps to deliver system — General Michael Guetlein has laid out the plans to bring about the U.S.’ ambitious Golden Dome missile intercepting system within three years. — Space News

• Rocket Lab stock rally continues — Rocket Lab’s U.S.-listed stock gained further ground, with Bank of America and Citi penning high price targets amid favorable aerospace and defense sector market conditions. — AInvest
• ArianeGroup, Nikon to back production of ultra-large-scale components — ArianeGroup and 3D metal printer manufacturer Nikon have partnered up to support output of ultra-large-scale components above 1 cubic meter through additive manufacturing. — Nikon
• SpaceX plans to detonate rockets over Hawaii’s waters — The Federal Aviation Administration has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX permission to detonate rocket ships over the protected waters of the Mokumanamana island, which is holy to indigenous people, The Guardian reports — The Guardian

• July 25 — Russia’s Roscosmos to launch Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M out of Siberia, carrying two satellites for the Ionosfera constellation
• July 25 — Arianespace’s Vega-C to take off with CO3D quartet of Earth observations satellites out of the French Guiana
• July 26 — Gilmour Space’s Eris to launch on test flight out of Queensland
• July 27 — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s Long March 6 to take off out of Xinzhou
• July 30 — The Indian Space Research Organisation’s GSLV-F16 will depart with the ISRO-NASA joint satellite, NISAR, out of Sriharikota