The Workplace of Administration and Price range (OMB) instructed NASA to quickly pause funding for various science missions. The transfer aligns with the White Home’s proposed cuts for NASA’s 2026 price range, which had been later restored by Congress.
NASA headquarters despatched an electronic mail to the company’s facilities, instructing them to restrict monetary commitments on greater than 15 science missions forward of incoming tips from OMB, Politico first reported. The listing contains the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and different missions that had been threatened to be called off under the administration’s 2026 budget proposal.
False hope
The White Home’s proposed price range for 2026 would have reduced NASA’s funding by $6 billion in comparison with 2025. Below that proposal, NASA’s planetary science price range would drop from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion.
The proposed price range would have dealt NASA the most important single-year minimize within the company’s historical past.
In an effort to rescue NASA’s science missions, Congress handed a price range invoice in January that rejected nearly all of the proposed budget cuts. The invoice secures $24.4 billion for NASA, about the identical quantity the company acquired in 2024 and 2025— and far larger than the administration’s beforehand proposed $18.8 billion for 2026.
On maintain
The funding invoice is supposed to protect NASA’s scientific and exploration missions, however the latest directive suggests these should face threats from the present administration.
“Excluding payroll fees, please pause all actions that will create new monetary commitments on the Science initiatives listed under,” the e-mail read, based on NASA Watch. “This contains, however is just not restricted to, contract actions, bank card purchases, and journey requests.”
The listing contains key missions designed to check Earth’s environment and local weather, in addition to efforts to look at Venus, and different probably liveable worlds within the universe.
“This pause in commitments is meant to forestall damaging work; as soon as the signed apportionment is acquired from OMB-which might be as quickly as Tuesday, February seventeenth,” the e-mail continued. “This momentary maintain is anticipated to final for 10 enterprise days, however could also be prolonged.”
