President Donald Trump’s proposed budget appears to end space launch systems rockets, Orion spacecraft and Gateway space stations at the heart of NASA’s existing Artemis program, but after a successful lunar landing when the country remains in competition with China.
A preliminary summary of the White House’s planned 2026 discretionary budget released Friday called SLS and Orion “severely expensive and delayed,” and says each SLS rocket alone would cost $4 billion, 140% more than the budget.
This is one of the billions of dollars cuts as NASA’s overall budget of $18.8 billion has been proposed, which is almost $25 billion this year. Ultimately, Congress passes budgets and often counters the president’s proposal.
The Trump administration appears to be dropping funds for Artemis’ future launch to $879 million, with the goal of ending them after the Artemis III flight.
“The budget funds a program to replace SLS and Orion flights with more cost-effective commercial systems that support more ambitious subsequent missions in the months,” the White House proposal states. “The budget also proposes to terminate Gateway, a small lunar space station under development with international partners used to support future SLS and Orion missions.”
NASA flew the unsuccessful Artemis I Mission, which first crew member Artemis II, ready to fly the moon by April, in 2022. Still on NASA’s calendar for the summer of 2027, Artemis III will bring humans back to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
In 2023, the NASA inspector’s office raised the red flag that SLS and Orion costs rose, noting that by the time Artemis III, the program would exceed $93 billion. This includes billions more than originally announced in 2012, as years of delays and increased costs plagued the lead-up to Artemis I.
Even almost two years ago, the audit said NASA should consider alternatives.
“The SLS is the only launch vehicle currently available to meet the needs of the Artemis mission, but there is a possibility that other lighter, cheaper and reusable commercial alternatives to human ratings will become available over the next three to five years,” the audit said. “Therefore, NASA may want to consider whether other commercial options should be part of a medium to long-term plan to support ambitious space exploration targets.”
This includes the SpaceX Starship, which has been developing, where Heavy Lift Rockets, such as Blue Origin’s new Glenn, created several suborbital test flights, including the new Glenn, which first flew earlier this year.
To that end, Trump’s budget proposal appears to keep a human exploration budget of over $7 billion, the best line item, including a $1 billion new investment to pursue a Mars-focused program.
This is the only program with the proposed increase.
The biggest loser of the proposed budget is Space Science, with more than $2.2 billion following reductions from Earth Science, mission support, and more than $500 million cuts from space technology.
“In line with the administration’s purpose of returning to the moon before China and putting people on Mars, the budget will reduce prioritization research and end affordable missions such as the Mars sample return mission, which will be a significant excess and that goal will be achieved through human missions to Mars,” the proposal said.
Original issue: May 2, 2025, 2:40pm EDT
