Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman.

The White House recently proposed slashing NASA’s science budget nearly in half and reducing the space agency’s overall funding to just three quarters of what it received last year. When adjusted for inflation the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would be NASA’s lowest since the beginnings of the Apollo program . But these days NASA is responsible for much more than keeping up with the space race. NASA’s work touches our daily lives in ways most people never realize, from the weather forecasts that help you decide what to wear to the climate data that helps farmers know when to plant their crops.

The stakes are so high that every living former NASA science chief—spanning from Ronald Reagan’s administra

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