Trump 2026 space budget would cancel NASA rocket, lunar station

U.S. President Donald Trump's budget proposal seeks to cut key parts of NASA's moon program, including a $6 billion reduction for the space agency's 2026 budget. However, it provides a boost to the Mars-focused agenda championed by billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

The outline of Trump's proposed 2026 budget, released on Friday, would cancel NASA's over-budget Space Launch System (SLS), a gigantic rocket built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and its Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule after their third mission in 2027 under the Artemis program.

Cutting 24 percent of NASA's current $24.8 billion budget, the proposal threatens to cancel major science programs affecting thousands of researchers worldwide. It would upend active contracts defended for years in Washington by an array of established NASA contractors and overturn missions and programs in which U.S. allies, such as the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan, play key roles.

Nearly all parts of NASA face deep cuts, except for its human exploration portfolio, where the administration proposed a $1 billion boost for "Mars-focused programs." This signals a major revision of the Artemis effort, leaning toward SpaceX CEO Musk's vision of sending humans to the Red Planet.

A White House budget summary called SLS and Orion "grossly expensive" and stated that they have far exceeded their budgets. Critics have called the cuts, including a 47 percent reduction to NASA's science budget, "a historic step backward" for the country's space efforts.

The Artemis program, initiated during Trump's first administration, aims to return humans to the moon before Chinese astronauts reach the lunar surface in 2030. Seeing the moon as a testbed for later Mars missions, Artemis has grown into a multibillion-dollar effort at the forefront of an emerging global space race, involving dozens of private companies and countries.

Trump's new administration has fixated on getting humans to Mars, the long-sought destination for Musk, the president's outgoing adviser who spent $250 million on Trump's campaign to return to the White House.

SpaceX's Starship rocket, a multi-purpose behemoth central to Musk's Mars vision, is contracted to land NASA astronauts on the moon in 2027, alongside other vehicles involved in the program, such as the SLS and Orion duo, which work together to get astronauts off Earth.

"The budget phases out the grossly expensive and delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after three flights," the budget summary said, noting SLS's per-launch price tag of $4 billion. The rocket's development cost of roughly $23 billion since 2010 is "140 percent over budget," it added.

"The budget funds a program to replace SLS and Orion flights to the moon with more cost-effective commercial systems that would support more ambitious subsequent lunar missions," the summary added.

"This proposed cut would represent a historic step backward for American leadership in space science, exploration and innovation," said the Planetary Society, a space policy organization founded by famed scientist Bill Nye, referring to Trump's overall budget reduction.

The budget plan mentions a parallel moon and Mars mission agenda, appearing to balance intense pressure from Congress and the space industry to keep the moon program with calls from Musk's circle to prioritize the Mars program.

Trump's nominee for NASA, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut and SpaceX customer, explained similar ideas during his confirmation hearing last month. Isaacman is expected to receive a Senate vote later this month to become NASA administrator.

Multibillion-dollar contracts at stake

Lockheed Martin is contracted to build Orion crew capsules for Artemis 8, representing at least $4 billion that could face potential termination.

The company is currently building the Orion spacecraft for Artemis 4, Kirk Shireman, Lockheed's vice president of human space exploration, told Reuters on Thursday before the budget plan announcement.

"We are working to even accelerate our work production for Artemis 3, 4, 5 and beyond, and NASA has been working with us and encouraging us to continue doing that," Shireman said.

The budget would cancel the Gateway station, a research station and transfer point between spacecraft launching from Earth and landers descending to the moon's surface. Gateway was designed to orbit near the moon and was due for initial deployment in Artemis 4.

Northrop Grumman has a $935 million NASA contract to provide a Gateway module that was delivered last month by subcontractor Thales Alenia Space. Northrop has taken roughly $100 million in charges on the program, securities filings show.

It was unclear what lunar missions Trump's NASA is planning after Artemis 3, though they likely would favor rockets built by SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, which is also building a moon lander due to be used in later Artemis missions.

Last year, NASA and Japan signed an agreement to include Japanese astronauts on a future Artemis moon mission, a significant step in the U.S.-Japan alliance that would put the first Asian astronaut on another celestial body.

NASA said that Gateway components already built can be repurposed for other missions and that "international partners will be invited to join these renewed efforts."