Nasa is set not to receive a significant increase in its budget next year, according to the White House. The federal budget request for fiscal year 2025, which was released recently, allocates $25.4 billion to Nasa.
This is a 2% increase from the $24.9 billion the agency received for fiscal year 2024, as approved by Congress. The approved amount for the current fiscal year is actually a reduction from the $27.2 billion requested by the White House. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether Nasa will receive the full $25.4 billion requested for fiscal year 2025, which begins on October 1 of this year.
It is important to note that the requested budget for Nasa is just a small portion of the overall federal spending, which is set at approximately $7.3 trillion for 2025. The proposed budget for 2025 includes an allocation of $7.6 billion for Nasa’s Artemis program.
The goal of the Artemis program is to establish a human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. With this funding, Nasa plans to launch astronauts around the moon in September 2025 on the Artemis 2 mission, followed by a lunar landing near the south pole with Artemis 3 a year later.
In addition to the Artemis program, the budget request also supports crewed spaceflight efforts closer to Earth. For instance, it provides $109 million for the development of a vehicle, in partnership with private industry, that will aid in the safe deorbiting of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030. The request also continues to fund the development of private successors to the ISS in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Another significant allocation in the proposed budget is $2.73 billion for robotic planetary exploration. This will enable Nasa to continue working on missions such as Dragonfly, a rotorcraft designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, which is believed to have the potential for hosting life.
Part of the $2.73 billion will also go towards the Mars sample return (MSR) project, a collaborative effort between Nasa and the European Space Agency. The MSR project aims to bring back samples collected by Nasa’s Perseverance rover to Earth in the 2030s.
This is a 2% increase from the $24.9 billion the agency received for fiscal year 2024, as approved by Congress. The approved amount for the current fiscal year is actually a reduction from the $27.2 billion requested by the White House. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether Nasa will receive the full $25.4 billion requested for fiscal year 2025, which begins on October 1 of this year.
It is important to note that the requested budget for Nasa is just a small portion of the overall federal spending, which is set at approximately $7.3 trillion for 2025. The proposed budget for 2025 includes an allocation of $7.6 billion for Nasa’s Artemis program.
The goal of the Artemis program is to establish a human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. With this funding, Nasa plans to launch astronauts around the moon in September 2025 on the Artemis 2 mission, followed by a lunar landing near the south pole with Artemis 3 a year later.
In addition to the Artemis program, the budget request also supports crewed spaceflight efforts closer to Earth. For instance, it provides $109 million for the development of a vehicle, in partnership with private industry, that will aid in the safe deorbiting of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030. The request also continues to fund the development of private successors to the ISS in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Another significant allocation in the proposed budget is $2.73 billion for robotic planetary exploration. This will enable Nasa to continue working on missions such as Dragonfly, a rotorcraft designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, which is believed to have the potential for hosting life.
Part of the $2.73 billion will also go towards the Mars sample return (MSR) project, a collaborative effort between Nasa and the European Space Agency. The MSR project aims to bring back samples collected by Nasa’s Perseverance rover to Earth in the 2030s.