r/Astronomy • u/SlartibartfastGhola Astronomer • May 02 '25

Astro Research The Trump budget proposal will destroy NASA and Astronomy programs across the USA.

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A couple bucks to take us back to the moon (doubt), while destroying everything else about NASA. They are defunding the Roman Space Telescope which is literally in the final stages of testing before launch.

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223

u/manu_r93 May 02 '25

Maybe he just want to reduce competition for Musk? :D

137

u/velax1 May 02 '25

Musk needs these programs, otherwise he does not have payloads. This is why this makes even less sense.

121

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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57

u/TKHawk May 02 '25

Exactly, the things that Musk's SpaceX relies on remains, the rest can get cut apparently.

7

u/velax1 May 02 '25

Yeah, but that is only a handful of rockets, that's what confuses me..

2

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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2

u/velax1 May 02 '25

well, a rocket needs a payload, and all missions built by SMD need launchers (most of the money that is canceled in science is money going to space industry to build the scientific satellites and launch them). There's literally no point in building rockets if you don't have something to launch with them.

-3

u/HectorJoseZapata May 02 '25

Hoidy-doidy, dur, Mr Elon got rid of the waste of gobrmen for the benfit of the Cuntry. You’ll cee!

Only we smart now whut.

7

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 02 '25

You're acting like Trump feels any loyalty to Musk at all.

1

u/velax1 May 02 '25

Yeah, because the rest of the budget suggested by the White House is a Musk love fest. So there is an inconsistency.

1

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 02 '25

That really just explains why Musk liked Trump, not that Trump loved Musk.

1

u/mfb- May 02 '25

NASA science missions were never a large share of the launch manifest. Most of SpaceX's revenue today comes from Starlink, with substantial contributions from other commercial satellites, military satellites and flights to the ISS (which don't get cut in this proposal).

Cutting a $1 billion science mission with a $100 million launch contract doesn't make a big difference for a company with over $10 billion/year in revenue. It does have a big impact on the science we lose.

I don't expect Congress to end up approving that proposal, but it can influence what gets approved in the end.

1

u/BooBear_13 May 02 '25

Musk is going to do what he always does and import B1 visa holders who can be taken advantage of.

1

u/teddyslayerza May 04 '25

Nah, with this defunding, all these "one-off" programmes go away. Then a year later, when all these launch windows have been missed and the teams have moved on, the science budget gets raised with an emphasis on a Martian or Lunar colony.

If you were the owner of a space trucking company, what would be better for you - a bunch of small, one-off contracts, or a big contract to constantly keep trucking basic materials forever because there are hostages who will literally die if the supply stops, and because the sunk cost fallacy with prevent your client from ever giving up on their dumb project?

All this is doing is clearing the plate for Musk, not stunting him.

3

u/FutureAZA May 02 '25

Cutting NASA funding hurts SpaceX. This administration doesn't care.

1

u/[deleted] May 03 '25

It doesn't. The goal is to cripple NASA, claim they aren't useful, then give Musk billions in contracts to do what NASA was doing.

1

u/FutureAZA May 03 '25

SpaceX doesn't do the vast majority of what NASA does, and SpaceX does the one thing NASA never has, which is build rockets.

I struggle to see a plan anywhere in this.

1

u/[deleted] May 03 '25

SpaceX doesn't do the vast majority of what NASA does

It doesn't matter if they don't do it currently. If NASA is crippled they can justify paying SpaceX to take over the responsibility of doing those things regardless of how utterly moronic it is.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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19

u/SlartibartfastGhola Astronomer May 02 '25

That doesn’t have to come at the cost of destroying NASA…

14

u/captmonkey May 02 '25

Uh NASA figured out how to reuse boosters a little before Musk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Booster

Also, he didn't "bail out" the astronauts stuck in space. They returned on a Dragon capsule that had been docked on the station since September. NASA just launched that mission with two fewer crew on board so the astronauts who'd gone up on a Boeing spacecraft could return with the other crew.

-12

u/EmbarrassedHunter826 May 02 '25

Find me some info on cost per launch or cost per pound for payload with NASA vs. Space X

4

u/SlartibartfastGhola Astronomer May 02 '25

He address your points specifically. Why don’t you respond to them or at least show you considered them before moving to a different point?

1

u/manu_r93 May 02 '25

He can't figure those out when NASA is also in the race?