Trump’s budget would cut NASA asteroid mission, earth science
On the plus side: “Earth science” is being cut. Now, I’m not opposed to “Earth science,” it’s simply not NASA’s gig. The NOAA would seem to be the proper place for that, just like funding for ISS should come not from the NASA budget but from the State Department. On the downside, the asteroid capture mission seemed to me like one of the few useful missions for Orion/SLS.
A more involved discussion of what’s cut is HERE. Also cut is the Europa lander and NASA’s education program.
NASA’s overall budget is proposed to be cut 0.8% over the previous years. This is small compared to other proposed budget cuts across the federal budget… but it’s *YUUUGE* compared to the cuts that are happening in the entitlement programs. And that’s sad, given that entitlements are the areas that are sucking up the biggest chunk of the government and only getting bigger.
Here’s a thought: for a ten-year period, let’s flip the Medicare and NASA budgets, and then see how things stand.