When President Trump surfaced NASA’s budget in 2026, it cut the science budget in half, suggesting the end of the Artemis program’s space launch system rocket, Orion Spacecraft, and Gateway Lunar Station, cutting back support for the International Space Station.
Congress will ultimately decide which programs will be funded by federal government funding, but that may not happen for months. Instead of waiting, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) aimed at Trump’s tax and spending bills. The president calls it “a big beautiful bill.”
Cruz led the amendment to the shoehorn over $10 billion to a law also known as the Settlement Bill to save some of NASA’s targets. He also puts his money aside to move his retired Space Shuttle Discovery from his current home in the Smithsonian suburbs of Washington to Texas.
The bill was approved this week by both the Senate and House of Representatives and was signed by Trump on July 4th. Additional funds are outside NASA’s annual budget and will be available for use over the next seven years.
Cruz was the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transport Committee, and first proposed an amendment that “ensures that the United States, not China, will reach Mars and return to the Moon first.”
This secures funding for a program that has withstanded heavy criticism due to years of delays and nearly $100 billion in the country, but has managed only one launch so far.
The funds include $4.1 billion in SLS rockets needed for Artemis IV and V missions. This is a major victory for Prime contractor Boeing, creating the Rocket’s Core Stage and the Melbourne-based L3 Harris, producing four RS-25 engines in the Core Stage. It also has good news for Northrop Grumman, who will make two solid rocket boosters for SLS. When combined with the core stage, the lift-off produces 8.8 million pounds of thrust.
The only flight of the SLS on the Artemis I in 2022 remains the most powerful rocket to reach orbit. Characterized by Orion’s first crew flight, Artemis II is scheduled for a mission to fly by April 2026, but will not land on the moon. Artemis III is still available on the Summer 2027 calendar. This is the first time that humans are attempting to bring them back to the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
The budget Trump is proposing will kill both the use of SLS and Orion Spacecraft after Artemis III, and continue the missions on Moon and Mars using commercial rockets such as SpaceX’s spacecraft and Blue Origin’s new Glenn. It also appears to kill Gateway Lunar Space Station. Some of these should be released on Artemis IV.
Cruz’s supplementary funding proposal will instead add $2.6 billion to fully fund Gateway.
By storing Artemis IV and V in SLS, it means that the new Mobile Launcher 2 currently under construction at the Kennedy Space Center could actually be used. These two missions are designed for larger versions of SLS, and use a more powerful upper stage designed by the European Space Agency. These missions are still on NASA’s roadmap for 2028 and 2029.
By keeping them, KSC can also save jobs. Trump’s proposed budget is about to close the KSC-based Exploration Ground Systems program, which employs around 500 civil servants and 3,000 contractors. According to NASA, KSC employs around 700 civil servants and 3,850 contractors among all Artemis programs.
On a small scale, the proposal set aside $20 million for Lockheed Martin Orion capsules in Artemis IV.
A late addition to the amendments that overcame the conditions was to set aside $85 million to move the discovery of the space shuttle from its current home at the Udber Hazy Center in Virginia to Space Center Houston, Texas.
Other major funding includes $700 million for Mars’ communications orbit. $1.25 billion will support the operation of the International Space Station for five years until the decommissioning was planned in 2030. $325 million to fund Deorbit vehicles, designed by SpaceX, was needed to bring the station back to safely burn out in the Earth’s atmosphere.
It also has $885 million to upgrade NASA facilities, including $250 million at Kennedy Space Center, and will support “construction, revitalization, recapitalization, or other infrastructure projects and improvements” by fiscal year 2026.
“One big beautiful bill supports the Artemis program and continues to lead the US in space by investing in NASA centers,” Senator Mike Harudopolos posted on X. Space Coast lawmakers are chair of the House Space Subcommittee and welcomed the addition of the Senate to the settlement bill. “We’re back to the moon, on Mars, and beyond!”
Funds for fiscal year 2026, which begins in October this year, will not be decided until Congress passes its budget bill. But when it happens, it’s uncertain. This year’s federal government is actually being implemented under a continuing resolution that has maintained levels from the 2024 budget. So NASA took about $25 billion.
Funds for 2026 will continue under a similar resolution until a full budget is agreed.
Trump’s proposal is trying to cut NASA’s budget to $18.8 billion. The biggest losers are more than $3.4 billion from science, including $1.15 billion from Earth Science, $1 billion from astrophysics, more than $800 million from Planetary Science and $370 million from Heliophysics. It also reduces space technology and zero-out stem education.
The Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization, said the overall budget would be the smallest for NASA since 1961, calling it an “extinction-level event” of NASA’s scientific efforts, killing 41 science projects, or one-third of NASA’s scientific portfolio.
This includes 19 existing missions “making currently active, healthy and valuable science,” according to a statement from the Planetary Society. Among them is a new horizon that visits Plput and is now in the Kuiper Belt. Junho, the only mission near Jupiter. Chandra X-ray Observatory. The UCF-led Gold Atmospheric Science Mission, which began in 2018, will also be over.
“These represent cumulative investments of over $12 billion and years of work on design and construction. These are irreplaceable assets,” the statement reads.
Original issue: 8am EDT, July 5th, 2025
