While President Trump’s NASA budget plan aims to cut public relations funds by half, agents have already shut down social media accounts that include those dedicated to popular missions such as Mars curiosity, Mars perseverance and Voyager.
In particular, these three have an X fanbase. The Curiosity account promotes over 4 million followers. Patience and its little flying companion Ingenuity has over 2.9 million followers and nearly 900,000 Voyagers.
The X-handle of the robot mission takes a whimsical approach to posting over the years. And after NASA announced a planned consolidation of its accounts on Monday, each posting appreciation responses after urging it to pour its support online.
“Wow, thank you for the supportive message. I might be a robot, but I felt all the love,” reads a post from @MarsCuriosity, an account that was on Twitter in 2008 from Canaveral in 2011 and the 2012 landing on Mars. “Each of you has made this strange journey even more meaningful. This account has not yet been archived.
Wow, thank you for the supportive message. I might be a robot, but I felt all the love. Each of you has made this strange journey even more meaningful. 🥰
This account has not been archived yet. So stick to the highlights of the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/4Pebu8ubsh
– Curiosity Rover (@marscuriosity) June 10, 2025
The @NasaperSeapersevere account, which started that year in 2020 and created in 2020 for the mission that landed on Mars in 2021, posted a “Thank you” with heart emojis, saying, “All your supportive words mean more to me, and zeros have never been. My work on Mars continues.
The @nasavoyager account was posted, created in 2010 for a mission that lasted nearly 50 years.
Another mission-specific account to listen to Death Knell is for New Horizons, which was flew by Pluton in 2015 and is currently traveling through Kuiper Belt. This is one of several aggressive missions the proposed Trump budget is about to close. Similarly, post a farewell message @nasanewhorizons and ask others to look for other NASA account updates that remain active in their followers.
This one! Last week. 🚀
When you’re setting this account to sunset, follow @NasaSolarSystem to continue tracking NEW Horizons and other interplanetary explorers in NASA. pic.twitter.com/l4s7maqyvt
– NASA New Horizons (@nasanewhorizons) May 26, 2025
According to an agency’s announcement, when NASA streamlines its message, they are one of the most popular accounts.
Closures of some social media accounts include NASA’s launch services program (@NASA_LSP) and the Kennedy Space Center-based Exploration Ground System (@Nasagroundsys).
Also integrated under the Artemis program are Orion (@nasa_orion), Space Raunch System (@nasa_sls), and Gateway Lunar Station (@nasa_gateway) accounts.
Others include those dedicated to NASA astronauts (@Nasa_Astronauts), Climate Mission (@Nasaclimate), Commercial Crew Program (@commercial_crew), MoonScience (@nasamoon) and Atmospheric Research (@nasaatmosphere).
“As time passed, NASA’s social media footprint has grown significantly, growing to over 400 individual accounts across 15 platforms,” the agency posted. “This allowed for highly specialized updates, but also created fragmented digital landscapes that are difficult for the public to navigate and NASA to manage efficiently.”
NASA will continue to provide mission updates, but on a wider channel. A lot of people are deactivated, but some merge and in some cases rebranded.
The move is a plan to centralize communications at the headquarters and eliminate people from nine space centers, including the Kennedy Space Center, according to Trump’s proposed 2026 budget.
“From 2026, the Bureau of Communications will restructure the organization into an agency or central structure and center-specific institution to eliminate functions that are not legally required, except for those that the agency deems necessary.
The 2024 budget funded the Communications Bureau at $76.2 million out of NASA’s nearly $25 billion. The 2026 spending plan will reduce that to $33.8 million out of the agency’s $18.8 billion. This includes the removal of KSC’s $7.8 million. This is the most popular of the Space Center’s public relations budget.
Closures of individual accounts are part of a more uniform message plan, NASA said, noting that the 1958 law created an institution that required “the most extensive and appropriate dissemination of information about its activities and its outcomes.”
“The 2025 Social Media Integration Project is designed to meet this mission more effectively. By reducing the number of agency accounts, NASA is trying to avoid the possibility of oversaturation or confusion that can arise from many social media accounts with NASA names and symbols,” he said.
Apart from fans who lamented losing popular accounts, there are critics for the change in approach. The English-American astronomer and astrophysicist work at the Harvard Smitonian Chandra X-Ray Center in Astrophysics.
“That’s why @Nasa integrates media accounts for “consistent messaging.” This is just as bad as every cafe in town that is Starbucks forces your consistent menu. Corporate accounts to replace individual @NASA voices are incorrect. ”
