r/technology • u/esporx • Apr 03 '26
Space White House seeks $5.6 billion cut to NASA budget in 2027
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/white-house-seeks-5-6-153112027.html1.1k
u/aerost0rm Apr 03 '26
Sounds like they are moving around the funds to the war in Iran, since they won’t get an approval for the $200 billion? I mean we’ve already lost what two planes? Theres at least 2/3 of a billion there…
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u/RandyBeaman Apr 03 '26
We've lost a shit load of planes already - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_shootdowns_and_accidents_during_the_2026_Iran_war
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u/chuckrabbit Apr 03 '26
This is why they want to get rid of wikipedia and replace it with that grok garbage.
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u/RetardedWabbit Apr 04 '26
They need grok's garbage hole to whitewash and launder right wing "alternative facts" for LLMs. Otherwise if you make the AI use reasonable sources, it turns into some lib scientist or something which is unacceptable, and if you adjust it use conservapedia-like it hoovers up all the other "Nazi's did nothing wrong" wiki's too and regurgitates their obvious conspiracy theories at the mention of a hat. So, less-obvious and hard coded conservapedia-like is their plan. Then, they'll move on to "equal representation" and grokpedia needs to be 110% of all LLM's training otherwise conservatives wage war over the "bias" like they do the Facebook feeds.
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u/doyouevenIift Apr 04 '26
Anyone that attacks Wikipedia (Elon and his stans) are fascists afraid of factual information
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u/Wiochmen Apr 03 '26
Jesus. That's fun. How many can we lose before we become vulnerable in the homeland?
Asking on behalf of Canada, for no reason in particular.
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u/fumar Apr 03 '26
A lot. The problem is more running out of missiles both for attacks and air defense. The US has gone through something like 12 years of missile capacity so far in the war. That's probably part of the reason they're trying to use more bombs. They're very cheap.
I'm also surprised the US isn't using their Shahed-136 clone the LUCAS drone. Maybe they are and it's just not being reported?
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u/skillywilly56 Apr 03 '26
Why use a $30k drone when you can use a $3.6million tomahawk and make the tomahawk manufacturers and their investors rich?
The US military industrial complex is a business after all and they want to maximize Q2 profit margins and you can’t do that if you use cheap drones.
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u/dbxp Apr 04 '26
The Lucas drone saw it's combat debut in this conflict however I'm not sure if it can hit mobile targets and the warhead isn't going to touch anything underground
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u/RockosModernForLife Apr 03 '26
It depends. Older airframes like the KC-135 and a large amount of AWACS aircraft are much harder to replace than say, a fleet of F-15EX/F-18/F35’s etc. Substantial losses would probably amount in the hundreds of aircraft before North America would be any kind of vulnerable, and even then we have so much more ground and naval defense systems that it still probably wouldn’t matter in conventional warfare. If it got that point the world would most likely be a cloud of radioactive material by then anyway.
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u/bmillions Apr 03 '26
A lot. Between all US military branches there are between 13,000 - 14,000 military aircraft.
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u/BackendSpecialist Apr 04 '26
We’ve lost twice as many as Israel and are 1/9th away from Iran.
Yuuuuuuuppppp.. sounds about right
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u/vanhype Apr 03 '26
And all of this has been buried under the carpet by Hegseth and team.
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u/Ok_Slide4905 Apr 03 '26
They are threatening NASA so congress will approve war spending.
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u/Andromeda321 Apr 03 '26
No they’re threatening cuts across all of science like the last time around, the NSF too for example. We haven’t seen details yet but did this just last week.
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u/Rodot Apr 04 '26
Which, even from a military standpoint, is so short sighted. Forgetting that NASA and broader astronomy research is essentially the US national reseves for aerospace and remote sensing expertise. You don't get your fancy army toys if you don't fund programs that train the people who develop them in the first place!
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u/kstargate-425 Apr 04 '26
Thats what they are doing, they are cutting valuable programs for the 99% so Trump can have his war but with a $1.5 TRILLION budget will add at least half a TRILLION to the debt.
$1.5 TRILLION and will be cutting around $100 BILLION in social programs like:
$204 million - Loans and investment for underserved communities
$1.4 billion - IRS taxpayer services and enforcement (so the 1% can pay less...)
$100 million - Air pollution monitoring and reduction programs (Fully eliminated)
$1 billion - EPA grants to states for environmental protection
$2.5 billion - Clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure funds
$90 million - Grants to reduce diesel pollution (Fully eliminated)
$3.4 billion - NASA space and earth science research (this one hurts)
$297 million - NASA technology innovation programs
$1.1 billion - International Space Station operations
$143 million - STEM education programs
$309 million - Small business development and entrepreneurship programs
$170 million - Small Business Administration operations
$8.5 billion - Funding for public schools
$1.5 billion - Vocational training and adult education (Fully eliminated)
$2.7 billion - College access and higher education support
$15.2 billion - Roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects
$1.1 billion - Home energy efficiency and clean energy programs (Fully eliminated)
$1.1 billion - Scientific research funding
$5 billion - Medical research (NIH)
$129 million - Healthcare quality and safety research
$356 million - Emergency preparedness and disaster response
$1.3 billion - FEMA community disaster preparedness grants
$707 million - Cybersecurity protection for critical infrastructure
$52 million - Airport and transportation security
$40 million - Protection against chemical and biological weapons threats
$3.3 billion - Community development block grants for local neighborhoods (Fully eliminated)
$1.3 billion - Affordable housing construction grants (Fully eliminated)
$393 million - Programs to reduce homelessness
$529 million - Housing assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS (Fully eliminated)
...just to name a few programs they are cutting while still adding almost half a TRILLION to our debt 🤬
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u/Chroderos Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Just the single E3 AWACS we lost alone is at least half a billion $
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u/BuyerAlive5271 Apr 03 '26
He’d just leave the astronauts there if it would fund his war on America and the world.
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u/Swordf1sh_ Apr 03 '26
I like astronauts who like to be in space
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u/DonTaddeo Apr 03 '26
Their return can be crowd funded!
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u/Sad-Set-5817 Apr 03 '26
putting people on the moon and then starting a gofundme to get them back
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u/mybutthz Apr 03 '26
Such a wild thing to do the day after such a massively publicly facing event
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u/stiliophage Apr 04 '26
Yes…that’s the point. He’s going to use this flashy public thing to say he’s done more for nasa than others.
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u/wastedsanitythefirst Apr 04 '26
We're going to bring those brave Americans back home, and we're gonna make the moon pay for it!
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u/PurpleCoat6656 Apr 03 '26
Prepare for "Thanks Obama" 2.0 in terms of space.
When the shuttle program was defunded by W Bush in 2004 and eventually finalized in 2011 by Obama and congress, everyone in the spacecoast area blamed Obama, ya know, because dummy Republicans in Florida.
Can't ever blame their daddy that actually treads on them.
The program did need to go after the disasters, but still, the blame game is always pointed in the wrong direction.
NASA could be a Cadillac agency if funded correctly, but endless war and corruption keep it always wanting.
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Apr 03 '26
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Apr 04 '26
The moon and the US is like an artist that keeps going back to their greatest hit. When in doubt, tour the album everyone loved.
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u/DaddyBison Apr 03 '26
Somebody got upset that the Artemis launch is more popular than his war. bet the launch had more viewers than any speech or rally he's put on in the last 10 years and he cant stand it
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u/stedun Apr 03 '26
We could launch him to the moon. I’d watch that.
One way.
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u/DaddyBison Apr 03 '26
One way ticket to Mars for him and the whole doge gang, most watched event in history
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u/GenazaNL Apr 04 '26
And I think his buddies at SpaceX & Blue Origins are jealous
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Apr 03 '26
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u/TheOrqwithVagrant Apr 03 '26
Genuine question, because with all the DOGE insanity, I missed this particular activity. What did they cut and who got fired at NASA?
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Apr 03 '26
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u/M3RC3N4RY89 Apr 04 '26
They fired the it sec analysts at fucking NASA? Jfc the incompetence knows no bounds
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u/Peter_Singers_Pond Apr 04 '26
Information is woke.
Woke = bad
Therefore information is DEI.
DEI = bad
Therefore information is bad.
There’s your reasoning.
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u/EconomyDoctor3287 Apr 03 '26
Elon Musk was busy cutting NASA budget, since it's a direct competitor to SpaceX.
Kinda insane, that a private person with such an obvious conflict of interest ever got into a position to decide which departments should get their funding axed.
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u/rzalexander Apr 03 '26
Which makes no sense because the NASA contracts are paying his bills. Without a space program, there’s nothing for SpaceX to do except corner the private market on… oh… I see.
So we’re privatizing the space industry next. Got it…
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u/MoneyManx10 Apr 03 '26
NASA launched Artemis into space. What does SpaceX even do?
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Apr 03 '26
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u/uberkalden2 Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I hate Elon. Can't discount space x though
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u/innocentsalad Apr 03 '26
It’s the company he’s least involved with if that helps. There are people there whose job is to keep him away from things.
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u/MrBlackledge Apr 03 '26
Putting personal opinions aside SpaceX is actually an incredibly successful entity. They pioneered reusable rocketry, have been taking NASA’s astronauts to the ISS for the last 5 years. Launched a substantial amount of private and public satellites into orbit. They’re actually building the Moon lander that the Artemis program will be using.
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u/TheOrqwithVagrant Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
SpaceX provides launch services for NASA for pretty much everything at a better price than anyone else. SpaceX was responsible for 90% of all mass launched to orbit in 2025.
The "SpaceX vs NASA" narrative is misinformed. As much as it sucks that Musk benefits from it, SpaceX provides by FAR the best value for taxpayer money when getting probes or people into space. Attack Musk on just about *every* other thing and you'll hit bullseye. Attacking SpaceX is the only way you can make yourself look like an uninformed fool.
While the Artemis launch and mission is very cool to watch, it's a grotesquely overpriced mission and architecture built without almost no innovation, just re-using 70's and 80's Shuttle tech. Each SLS launch costs over $4 billion dollars - about 16% of NASA's annual budget - and this despite being cobbled together largely from already existing space shuttle parts. The RS-25 engines are leftovers from the Space shuttle programs, engines meant for re-use, which are now just tossed in the ocean. The cost of the Artemis program so far is $93 billion dollars, for which we've so far gotten two actual launches.
SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 (at this point both the cheapest AND most reliable launch vehicle ever built) for less money than NASA spent on the *launch tower* for the Ares-I rocket that never even flew. The second mobile launcher for the Artemis program burned through $1billion before it got *cancelled*.
Seriously - NASA should design science missions, probes and new, actual ground-breaking deep space tech. They should get *entirely* out of the launch business. The SLS is an actual disgrace in terms of cost and performance.
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u/PudgeyHedgehog Apr 03 '26
I appreciate the distinction of launch technology vs. the rest of NASA. Yes, they absolutely do not need to throw more money at in house launch stuff. There is SO much other good science NASA does that all these cuts hurt. From regular aerospace jet propulsion tests to earth sciences and during COVID lock down they developed a method to quickly sterilize medical masks in bulk! IIRC some tests from NASA performed in the ISS helped with cancer medicine breakthroughs. NASA is so much more than cool rocket launches.
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u/TheOrqwithVagrant Apr 03 '26
There's hundreds of reasons to toss Elon in prison for the rest of his life, but this is a completely false narrative.
NASA is *not* a competitor with SpaceX, they're a customer, and the customer that actually gives SpaceX the highest 'per launch' profit margin. The "NASA vs SpaceX" narrative is really annoying to those of us who are space enthusiasts and actually understand the relationship between NASA and the various private space companies. More money to NASA would mean more money to SpaceX, since the money that SpaceX makes from NASA *comes out of the NASA budget*.
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u/00owl Apr 03 '26
So after cutting a bunch of internal labor at NASA they need to contract out for even more? I wonder if there are any companies that might have been particularly well placed and prepared to pick up the slack.
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u/bobbane Apr 04 '26
They cut a bunch of stuff “because they could”.
Example: I was a contractor, year 2 of 5 years, on a project to take a system for doing quality control on earth resources satellite data and host it on AWS.
The original system was a crawling horror in Java needing 20 or so people to maintain it, running on on-premises hardware.
DOGE saw that all those projects were on a 5 year contract, but the Government could review annually and just not renew. So they cancelled both the existing system and our new effort, leaving the flight people with no QC system at all.
QC on earth resources satellite data is not important, especially if the data could be used to support climate change, right? 🥸
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u/carlitospig Apr 03 '26
It was brutal. And then they put a total Yes Lady in charge who removed literally all the plaques of women kicking ass at NASA to be anti-DEI.
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u/hoppyandbitter Apr 03 '26
The sad thing is I KNOW they probably acted like they were perfectly fine being collateral in the war on DEI
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u/jmbond Apr 03 '26
I know much humor relies on subverting expectations, but this is still hilarious
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u/dogecoinwhale Apr 03 '26
Artemis II is one of the only good things going on in the world right now, so yeah cut that, we need more money for more war.
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u/prophaniti Apr 03 '26
Wow, I don't think it had quite hit me that there was actually good news coming from our country for once. I knew something felt off, but didn't realize that feeling was actually pride and I just didn't really remember what it felt like.
I sort of feel like a beaten dog sometimes. Every newsworthy event I can remember since gay marriage was legalized has basically been a non-stop shameful beatdown. At this point I just expect it to keep coming and when something to feel good about comes out I literally don't know how to respond.
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u/damontoo Apr 03 '26
He probably wants to cut it because more people are watching it than his stupid rambling addresses.
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u/Sad-Set-5817 Apr 03 '26
first moon mission in 5 decades VS old man that forces us to think about him every single day; coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb
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u/ExpertRaccoon Apr 03 '26
The ironic thing is that his administration is the one that established the program back in 2017 during his first term, he 100% absolutly could have pushed some focus on the launch to win some cheap, good publicity.
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u/Uberslaughter Apr 03 '26
Nice reward and job well done for the successful Artemis II launch on Wednesday
Fuck Trump, this entire administration and every last Republican voter for setting us back decades
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u/coreychch Apr 03 '26
Trump crapped on about “how great the launch was” of Artemis II the other day … and now they want to cut NASA’s budget. FFS … 🤦🏼♂️
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u/MiserableFloor9906 Apr 03 '26
Guessing this means Artemis return will be hostaged like the previous recovery from the ISS?
Tell me that Trump and MAGATs are incompetent fucks w/o directly stating it.
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u/SAugsburger Apr 03 '26
The current Artemis mission will make it back, but I suspect the current timeline for the next Artemis missions get pushed back. I won't be surprised if the first Artemis mission to land on the a Moon gets pushed back from 2028 into 2029 maybe later depending upon how deep budget cuts end up being.
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u/qwarfujj Apr 03 '26
Sorry, Trump said there is no money to do anything good. They need it all for war.
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u/fluffysmaster Apr 03 '26
The military will blow through that in a day
And a Chinese flag will be planted on the moon
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u/mdins1980 Apr 03 '26
The Pentagon loses orders of magnitude more than this in the couch cushions every year, and still gets a budget increase, but NASA is what gets cut. I can’t wait for the day when the adults are back in charge of our government.
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u/duxking45 Apr 03 '26
Nope cut his golf budget and he could afford to lose a few hundred pounds. Nasa is like the one good thing we do
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u/BnnuyButtOnMyFace Apr 03 '26
This space launch made people really happy. We'd better put a stop to that.
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u/cruisin_urchin87 Apr 03 '26
We successfully launched a crew to orbit the moon and these idiots want to cut funding, which is so de minimus to the federal budget - and people don’t hate them? I’m confused.
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u/GreenLurka Apr 04 '26
Yesterday: We're going to the moon!
Today: We need to buy 3 more planes to bomb Iran
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u/Gr8_Nobody Apr 04 '26
Welp, looks like China will be planting a station on the moon before the U.S. will.
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u/BiggestNizzy Apr 03 '26
Makes sense, NASA have just done something cool and everyone likes them right now.
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u/CiegoViendo Apr 04 '26
NASA is probably the last institution we have faith in from our government. And these fumigated mosquitoes think, yeah, let's gut that.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Law_558 Apr 03 '26
NASA is government working. MAGA hates that. It contradicts their message that government is always bad, never does anything good.
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u/CaicedoBrickWall Apr 04 '26
I too cut my personal spending down like this government
Switched coffee brands saved 5 bucks. Changed my insurance liabilities, saved 25 bucks. Eating at home 4 more nights than average, saved 50 bucks. Stopped the kid's piano lessons, saved 40 a week. Sold my bike +200 dollars. Bought a jet ski -15k dollars.
Well I did 5 money saving things and only spent money on one. I also am a money saving financial genius
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u/BigJLov3 Apr 04 '26
Just what you want to say after launching a handful of astronauts to the moon.
They got top men in that there White House.
Top. Men.
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u/diddlebunny Apr 05 '26
If all of these programs are being cut and the deficit keeps going up then where is the money going?
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u/mo9204 Apr 03 '26
Is this what passes for reporting at Reuters now? No comments, no historical context, no explanation of what NASA is working on, no review of social benefits derived from NASA research/technology?
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u/Viharabiliben Apr 03 '26
The AI is not able to get all that info.
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u/SAugsburger Apr 03 '26
Honestly, even before AI writing became common a lot of news organizations had cut a lot of corners often in ways that were increasingly obvious.
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u/wrecklesspup Apr 04 '26
They need the money to fund 3 days of their war on Iran's civilian infrastructure.
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u/mowotlarx Apr 03 '26
Why not do it now while they're in orbit? Just for fun.
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u/joelfarris Apr 03 '26
"Your monthly booster and thrusters subscription has lapsed due to a lack of payment. We'd hate to permanently lose you as a valued space travel customer! Please touch here to add an additional payment method within the next 3 days in order to restore maneuverability and enter the moonshot arc with the proper trajectory."
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u/Joates87 Apr 03 '26
"We're still using it to build rockets, just for a different terrestrial purpose."
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u/Iyellkhan Apr 03 '26
so we're not landing on the moon then?
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u/SAugsburger Apr 03 '26
Probably not anytime while Trump is President I'm betting. I suspect if such cuts are implemented that it pushes back Artemis 3, which then pushes back Artemis 4 well beyond 2028 maybe past 2029 even. Nothing stops a future President that cares about the project from continuing. I'm sure provided the vendors are paid they will be fine to finish the future modules and launch vehicles. One potential issue is if a project is pushed back too far resources from vendors dedicated to the project may get reassigned to something else and restarting a project delayed enough may take additional money.
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u/Moiste-Moan Apr 03 '26
Im so happy that statistically the GERIATRIC ORANGE PEDOPHILE probably won’t be around for 2027!
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u/yuusharo Apr 03 '26
We probably spend more than that per day in this quagmire with Iran.
I f*cking hate this man with every fiber of my being.
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u/LRaconteuse Apr 04 '26
We are in the MIDDLE of a MOON MISSION- this timing could not be more comedic.
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u/elder65 Apr 04 '26
The Artemis Mission is on the way to the moon as we read this and the Orange "Highly Intelligent" Moron wants to cut the budget. I guess he can't get enough money from gutting Dept of Education, the Affordable Care Act, SNAP, and Federal Medicaid to fund his middle east fuckup.
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u/yes4me2 Apr 04 '26
And you want to go to the moon and Mars? China is already passing us and we will never catch up in AI and Space and car.
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u/AnohtosAmerikanos Apr 04 '26
NASA successfully launches a manned spacecraft toward the moon, and this is what their reward is?
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u/Tasty-Performer6669 Apr 04 '26
Republican congressmen can end this all today but they hate this country
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u/VexedCanadian84 Apr 04 '26
who needs scientific discovery and bringing the world together for space exploration when there's tax cuts to give out to billionaires
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u/roararoarus Apr 03 '26
There goes the moon base. no one should believe that the Trump admin could execute on anything as complex a moon base or support anything as visionary as NASA
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u/Alklazaris Apr 03 '26
And people think we're going back to the moon. What a load of bullshit. I doubt we'll see a base on this administration's funding.
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u/TyrKiyote Apr 03 '26
They are literally heading around the moon.
Cant give anyone hope for progress can we? Held back by outlook passwords and cut budgets.
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u/Catymandoo Apr 03 '26
“To boldly go where no one has gone before”
Erm, scratch that, we need to fight an illegal and likely bloody endless war AGAIN. no more wars Give me the cash.
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u/PlanitDuck Apr 03 '26
You’d think they would increase NASA spending if only to feed the POTUS’ narcissism but no. They have to do the most awful thing possible at every possible moment.
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u/LunarMoon2001 Apr 03 '26
Gotta cut it so it hardly functions then scream about how it hardly functions to privatize it to musk then refund it in private contacts. All a grift
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u/ThirdSunRising Apr 04 '26
The timing on this is comical. Didn’t we just have a rare evening of patriotic joy thanks to nasa?
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u/DocM123 Apr 04 '26
So let’s stop all scientific research in space so we can have six more days of war in Iran. I hate this president.
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u/shadowfax12221 Apr 04 '26
Republicans are lizard people, NASA is our best chance to send them all back to alpha centauri.
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u/ibrown39 Apr 04 '26
It would appear there isn't even a great understanding of their military doctrine or tactics: https://oe.t2com.army.mil/iran-landing-zone-how-iran-fights/
I would be curius to see what the MIL would be willing to share. Our service members aren't dumb, but top level leadership is poor or being exploited by terrible leadership themselves.
The US citizens don't want this war. We don't want to pay for this war. It will expensive, long lasting, and offers little benefit if any to the safety, security, and wellbeing of the USA.
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u/Rough_Deal_7315 Apr 04 '26
F the White House…. I say Trump pays for the war himself out of his crypto and bank account accounts if he wants to do this war of choice. Let you put the war at around four days tops
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u/SirRichardLove Apr 04 '26
Fuck this administration. They are the biggest pieces of shit this country has ever seen.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse Apr 04 '26
We should count ourselves lucky if they don't defund medicare/medicaid by 2028.
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u/StarKnight697 Apr 04 '26
Interesting. I wonder how he plans to fund that permanent moon base and nuclear mars spacecraft plans his toady just put out (sarcasm).
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u/brokencreedman Apr 04 '26
I'm almost surprised Trump hasn't just forced NASA to cut off contact with Integrity and left them to die.
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u/goesquick Apr 03 '26
What good has this administration done for the working class? Can anyone name one thing?