President Trump’s budget proposal would end four NASA satellite programs focused on studying the effects of climate change, but for the most part the space agency remains virtually unscathed.
The fiscal 2018 budget requests $19.1 billion for NASA, reflecting a 0.8 percent decrease from the 2017 level. That’s a tap on the wrist compared to the steep reductions it proposes for the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, at 29 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
The NASA budget prioritizes public-private partnerships, such as the one underway with the company SpaceX, for developing manned and robotic spacecraft. The budget also “paves the way for eventual over-land commercial supersonic flights and safer, more efficient air travel with a strong program of aeronautics research,” the proposal states.
It also injects $1.9 billion toward the robotic exploration of space, “including funding for a mission to repeatedly fly by Jupiter’s icy ocean moon Europa and a Mars rover that would launch in 2020.” But it scraps a proposal to actually land on Europa.
The climate change cuts feared by environmental groups appear to be focused on the Earth observer satellite program, which has an array for four satellites used to monitor weather, pollution and carbon dioxide levels on Earth.
Nevertheless, the blueprint provides $1.8 billion “for a focused, balanced Earth science portfolio that supports the priorities of the science and applications communities,” for a savings of $102 million.
The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, also would kill off the $115 million NASA Office of Education. “The Office of Education has experienced significant challenges in implementing a NASA-wide education strategy and is performing functions that are duplicative of other parts of the agency,” the budget proposal reads.
