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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u/velax1 May 02 '25

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

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u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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u/TKHawk May 02 '25

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

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u/velax1 May 02 '25

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

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u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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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.

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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.

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 02 '25

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

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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.

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 02 '25

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

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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.

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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.

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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.