Early copies of some of the US government spending schemes suggest that the administration of President Donald Trump has intended to reduce climate and space science in some American agencies.
There is risk research that will develop the next generation climate model, track the changing oceans of the planet and detect the solar system. For the financial year 2026, NASA’s science budget will be cut in about half, the US $ 3.9 billion. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which monitors the Earth’s climate and forecast weather, its 2026 budget will be 27%cut, $ 4.5 billion. The leaked documents with this information were sent to federal agencies last week by the White House; He was reported by Other media outlets And obtained by Nature,
Although the proposed deduction is not final, they have equally concerned scientists and science advocates. “We are talking about the wholesale disintegration of NASA scientific fleet and future missions pipelines,” says KC Draer, the head of space policy for a non-profit space organization, a non-profit space organization in Pasadena, California. “Trump’s budget plan for NOAA is both derogatory and dangerous,” a statement issued by Zo Loofgrain, a member of the US House of Representatives, California, which is a ranking democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. “This budget will hollow the noaa.”
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“No final funding decision has been taken,” says Alexandra McCondles, spokesman of the US Office of Management and Budget. Trump’s team has tried to clear the US government clearly as the proposed cuts, Firing federal workers n warts And Axes allegedly in the name of government proficiency,
Here, Nature Looks at some programs and projects, which are on the chopping block, according to the documents.
Important climatic science
The NOAA office’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which gives money to many scientific efforts, including climate modeling, cloud monitoring and storm forecast, will be dropped to 74%, $ 171 million. OAR is the main research branch of the agency, with 11 laboratories and 16 cooperative institutions that collaborate with scientists in various universities; The budget proposal will save any of them from working on climate, weather or ocean. The draft budget also appears to eliminate funds for “regional climate data and information”, a $ 50 million program to help communities with climate science, such as tracking dried and heat waves. Overall, the deduction will eliminate OAR as an independent office and spread its remaining activities to other parts of NOAA. For many scientists, it is an indication that the Trump administration is planning to turn its back on research which is necessary to help understand long -term climate and environmental impacts. “It is a great threat to research at NOAA, but also for the safety and economic security of the American public,” says Craig McLean, a former assistant administrator of research at NOAA.
A next generation space telescope
Hubble And James web Space telescope will not last forever, distinguished for their ideas of the universe. And now, their successor can be in trouble. $ 4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Greenbelt is close to the completion of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, but Trump’s initial proposal will cancel all funding for this, as well as many other Goddard projects. During his first term as President in 2017-21, Trump, a Republican, repeatedly tried to eliminate funds for Roman telescopes, but was blocked by the US Congress in each case. This time also may also happen: “I will fight teeth and nails against these cuts,” said Chris Van Holene, a Democratic senator from Maryland, who includes Goddard Center in the district and who is the ranking member of the Congress’ spending committee -oversee Congress spending.
The concept of an artist of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, now called Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Earth-visiting satellite
Trump’s proposals will cancel the next generation Earth-visiting satellites in both NASA and NOAA. In NASA, the budget of earth science will be cut in half, only more than $ 1 billion; This will almost certainly derail efforts to launch a fleet of new satellites for monitoring important factors for weather and climate forecasting, including aerosols, clouds, and sea level growth. In NOAA, initial plans call to cancel a program to manufacture and launch new weather satellites in geographical classes, a backbone of American weather-renewed efforts. Trump will also remove climate equipment on future season satellites, and end long -standing agreement, through which NASA launched the NOAA season satellites.
Mission to Venus
NASA is out of the proposed cuts Two missions of the planet VenusWhich was last visited by the NASA spacecraft in 1989. The Devi Mission will send an probe into the thick Venusian environment, and the Veritus mission will map the surface and interior of the planet using radar and other technologies. Scientists of the planets have welcomed these longer contributions to study the nearest neighbor of the Earth, which holds a clue for the early development of the solar system and is Tentalizing, perhaps life -friendly chemistry in your cloudsBoth missions have been targeted for launch in 2031 and means that each is less than $ 500 million. But the delay has contributed to increasing expenses; According to an estimate, the cost of Davinci can be $ 1.2 billion or more.
Space traffic control system
Space analysts say the number of satellites in the low-earth orbit Growing fast And that to avoid dangerous collisions requires a system to coordinate information about their positions. In 2018, the Trump administration took steps towards setting up a civil office for space-traffic control, which is far from military far away from work. Now, the second Trump administration is ready to move the work in an unspecified unit outside the government, and to reduce the budget for the office that runs it from $ 65 million to $ 10 million.
It is not clear that all these proposed cuts will be, for the financial year of 2026 which starts from 1 October.
Whenever an US President issues a budget proposal, it indicates their priorities. The Congress, which says the last at expenses, usually adjusts the President’s proposed budget to reflect its preferences, and then passes the final expenditure law. During Trump’s first term, the Congress sometimes dismissed its requests for cutting the financing of science. But this year, the first of Trump’s second administration, the criteria is being placed as the President’s team. Slash of billions of dollars in federal grantDefeating the funding mandate of Congress. Republican MPs are also falling in accordance with Trump’s priorities, as they have done in the past.
Trump may not be required to wait for a financial 2026 budget to be approved to proceed with his plans. In an unusual step, when Republican-controlled Congress Last 2025 expenditure bill implemented last monthThis paid attention to the Trump administration how it spends the remaining budget for the current financial year, which lasts till September. The bill had the top-rich budget number for the agencies in the bill, but most detailed instructions were that they normally tell the agencies that they should keep towards the money. For this reason, some scientists say that the Trump administration has nothing to stop from preventing funds from climate research and other programs, the official expenditure scheme for 2025 at the end of this month has been finalized.
“They can do great harm in the remaining part of the financial 2025,” Walid Abdalati says, a partnership between NOAA and Colorado Boulder, leads the cooperative institute for the cooperative institution in environmental science. “And they will be within their rights, as the Congress cited that right.”
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published On April 14, 2025,
