When the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its top-level budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 on May 2, NASA and the space industry feared the worst. Leaks of an OMB “passback” budget document to NASA in April revealed the White House was proposing a nearly 50% cut to NASA science, including canceling many missions in development. Was that an outlier or a harbinger of cuts elsewhere at NASA?

It appeared the latter. That so-called “skinny” budget proposal — so named because it lacks the details of the full budget, yet to be released — sought an overall $6 billion cut for NASA, a reduction of nearly 25% from its 2025 budget. While there would be some increases in exploration, the budget proposed major cuts to science, space technology and space operations.

“A 25%

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