After a tumultuous eight months, Congress has passed an appropriations bill fully funding NASA with a $24.4 billion budget, rejecting the cuts proposed by President Trump.
The Senate passed a small bundle of appropriations bills known as a minibus on Thursday, Jan. 15, with a vote of 82 to 15. In the minibus was the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) bill, responsible for funding NASA, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and NSF (the National Science Foundation). The bill cleared the House last week after a 397 to 28 vote before moving to the Senate. Now, all the bill needs to become law is the president’s signature. And as Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, tells Astronomy, there was “a statement from the White House a week ago saying that if the bill passes, the White House will recommend that the president sign it as is.”
In May 2025, the Trump administration released the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request. In the proposal, NASA’s funding was to be cut by 24 percent, and NASA science faced a 47 percent cut. “These were historic cuts … going out of business kinda cuts,” Dreier says. The proposed budget would have canceled or defunded over 40 active and planned NASA science missions and placed restrictions on research grants. “The consequences were really enormous,” Dreier says, noting that these grants “train future scientists” and support the broader scientific community.
The proposed cuts triggered pushback from advocates. The Planetary Society helped to organize over 20 organizations into a coalition, ranging from scientists to commercial space firms. This effort mobilized tens of thousands of people to send nearly 100,000 messages to Congress. Dreier emphasizes that this engagement ensured the issue didn’t get lost in the political noise.
The rejection of the administration’s proposal was a rare display of bipartisan unity, with both parties coming together to protect space science. This cooperation was evident early on when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced an amendment to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” to secure $10 billion for the future of the Artemis program, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion spacecraft.
Dreier described the final appropriations bill as a “near total rejection” of the proposed cuts, highlighting that space remains a rare area where lawmakers can find common ground across the aisle.
The new bill is “very declarative,” Dreier says, including explicit language that protects funds set aside for specific missions and prevents the unauthorized transfer of money between accounts. This ensures the restoration of funds for international partnerships like the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover, and saves missions like New Horizons and Juno. It also protects the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is currently ahead of schedule and under budget, but would have faced severe cuts under the president’s proposed budget.
As for Artemis, the new “future looks very much like the old future,” Dreier says. The program remains intact, funding SLS and Orion through Artemis 4 and 5. The Gateway Space Station is also funded, receiving $1.1 billion in the FY 2026 budget. Interestingly, the total available resources for FY 2026 — when combined with the supplementary funding from the Big Beautiful Bill — could push NASA’s effective budget to nearly $27 billion, the largest in 30 years when adjusted for inflation. It’s a dramatic shift from the proposed cuts.
The future looks bright for NASA science. Newly confirmed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman publicly committed in his Dec. 3 nomination hearing to “maximizing the scientific value of every dollar afforded by Congress.” While advocates are savoring the win, Dreier warns that the “marathon” continues. With the next budget proposal only a few months away, the celebrations won’t last long. Instead, the focus will shift back to protecting what Dreier calls “this essential and unique core capability of our nation.”
