NASA Has Most of Its Funding Restored for 2026 After Trump's Attempted Cuts

Note: All funding figures are in United States Dollars.

In a pushback against President Trump's desired cuts to space exploration and science, the U.S. House and Senate has chosen to restore most of NASA's funding for fiscal year 2026.

The funding is being provided via a fiscal year 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill, and only reduces the agency's funding by 400 million, for a total of 24.438 billion. It is a significant improvement on Trump's proposed 18.8 billion. Funding allocated across the agency is as follows:

• Science: Trump proposed 3.9 billion; CJS bill provides 7.25 billion.
• Aeronautics: Trump proposed 588.7 million; CJS bill provides 935 million.
• Space Technology: Trump proposed 568 million; CJS bill provides 920.5 million.
• Exploration: Trump proposed 8.31 billion; CJS bill provides 7.78 billion.
• Space Operations: Trump proposed 3.1 billion; CJS bill provides 4.17 billion.
• STEM Outreach: Trump proposed 0 dollars; CJS bill provides 143 million.
• Safety, Security, and Mission Services: Trump proposed 2.1 billion; CJS bill provides 3 billion.
• Construction, Environmental Compliance and Restoration: Trump proposed 140.1 million; CJS bill provides 185.3 million.
• Inspector General: Trump proposed 40.7 million; CJS bill provides 46.5 million.

Alongside the CJS bill, the House and Senate also allocated 10 billion for various NASA programs, funding them for the next six years, via including it in the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill'. That allocated 4.1 billion for the Space Launch System for Artemis IV and Artemis V; 20 million for a fourth Orion crew spacecraft for use with Artemis IV and reuse on subsequent missions.; 2.6 billion to fully fund the Gateway lunar space station being built in cooperation with Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates as part of the Artemis program; 1.25 billion for the International Space Station to ensure there is no gap when it ends in 2030 and new commercial space stations are in orbit to replace it; 1 billion in 'improvements' at five NASA fields centers: Stennis in Mississippi (120 million), Kennedy in Florida (250 million), Johnson in Texas (300 million), Marshall in Alabama (100 million), and Michoud in Louisiana (30 million); 700 million for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO); 325 million for the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle to propel the International Space Station from orbit into the Pacific Ocean at the end of its lifetime; and 85 million for Space Vehicle Transfer for 'a space vehicle' to be transferred to a NASA Center and placed on public exhibition.

Through the CJS bill and additions to the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill', the grand majority of NASA's missions and programs remain, with the exception of one flagship mission.

Mars Sample Return is dead

A flagship project aimed to be terminated by Trump and not restored is the Mars Sample Return mission. In the final weeks of the Biden Administration and Bill Nelson's leadership of NASA, it was decided that the agency would look into two different methods to retrieve samples gathered by the Perseverance rover in an effort to save money.

Perseverance has been gathering those samples since September 2021 while NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency, devises plans to gather them. Those plans were expected to balloon to over 11 billion in costs. Awkwardly, while funding was in the slow process of not being restored, the strongest potential biosignatures yet were found in collected samples.

That has left highly valuable science samples on Mars, Europe's contribution to the mission without purpose, and China's Tianwen-3 becoming the only Mars sample collection mission. Tianwen-3 is set to launch in 2028, via two rockets carrying an orbiter-Earth return spacecraft and a lander-ascent vehicle combination, with the samples set to be delivered to scientists in 2031.

Isaacman praises Trump's 'support' for NASA

With the restoration of funding coming close to the one-year anniversary of Trump entering the White House for a second time, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has chosen to throw praise upon his boss and ignore what the rest of the U.S. government is providing to him. In an agency press release for the occasion, which mentioned the President a record-doubling eleven times, Isaacman is quoted as saying:

"In the first year of this administration, NASA has moved with clarity, purpose, and momentum, advancing President Trump’s bold vision for American leadership in space. From strengthening our focus on human spaceflight and preparing for the first deep space exploration by NASA astronauts in more than half a century, to accelerating innovation across science, technology, and national capability, the President has provided the clearest executive direction for NASA since the Kennedy era. President Trump’s National Space Policy sharpened our mission, aligned our priorities, and empowered our workforce to move faster and think bigger. Because of that leadership, NASA is confidently delivering on a future of American space superiority for generations to come."

What Trump has actually done is: an attempt to lower NASA's budget to historically low levels, signing a vague declaration of requiring the Artemis III mission to land before 2030, worsening safety for staff and astronauts in the name of government efficiency, starting witchhunts through interim leadership, and planning to violate space law for resource grabs. All of this while having a disjointed, vague concept of plans for space.