The “budget alternation” Presented Friday, May 2, 2025 by the Trump Administration Priorise “The return to the moon before China and the sending of a man to Mars”. Among the possible victims of restructuring, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule, replaced by commercial alternatives. The future lunar space station in development, Lunar Gateway, would also be deleted.
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These NASA missions are deleted by Trump
The SLS is a disposable and very expensive rocket which has exceeded its budget of $ 6 billion. According to a report by the Office of the Inspector General of NASA, each launch of Artemis reaches at least $ 4.2 billion.
Elon Musk publicly opposed SLS for future Artemis missions by his disposable character. Jared Isaacman, candidate of Donald Trump to lead NASA, described the SLS as “Scandalously expensive”.
Donald Trump’s budget proposal is a drop of 24 % compared to the $ 24.8 billion allocated to NASA for 2025. On the other hand, the habited space exploration budget benefits from an increase of $ 647 million. The message is clear: the return to the moon and the Martian exploration are a priority.
Thought to bring back samples from March, the Mission Mars Sample Return would be abandoned because they are deemed “Excessively expensive and whose objectives would be achieved by human missions to Mars”. The budget was estimated at $ 7 billion for a return of samples in the 2030s, but its budget exploded at 11 billion with a horizon pushed to 2040.
The Trump Administration would also reduce the crew of the international space station before its ongoing service scheduled for 2030. The US government wants NASA to invest in “Critical efforts for lunar and Martian exploration programs”.
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