NASA Fires Up Powerful Lithium-Fed Thruster for Trips to Mars

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. NASA is facing serious cuts

https://www.planetary.org/articles/82-nasa-missions-at-risk-under-new-proposal

84 NASA missions at risk under new proposal

Written by Asa Stahl, PhD
Science Editor, The Planetary Society
April 13, 2026

Only days after NASA launched astronauts to the Moon for the first time in decades, the White House’s budgeting office announced a plan to reduce NASA’s workforce by thousands and cancel over 50 NASA missions. If enacted, the proposal would slash the agency’s science program by a devastating 46% and turn off spacecraft already paid for, launched, and making discoveries. Instead of celebrating Artemis II’s historic accomplishment, this proposal dismantles NASA as the agency works to bring its crew back home.

The White House Office of Management and Budget proposed similar budget cuts last year, and The Planetary Society helped people around the world raise their voices in support of NASA science. Just a few months ago, Congress rejected the budget cuts and funded NASA in full.

Now the threat has returned, and we are again organizing the Save NASA Science campaign to show our elected officials that space science and exploration matter.

The first step is knowing what’s at stake. Here are some of the many missions slated for cancellation, and the mysteries that would go unsolved if we turned our backs on them.

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/11/artemis-ii-nasa-budget-cuts

Jubilant return of Artemis II shadowed by ‘extinction-level’ cuts to Nasa: ‘It’s discordant’
Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program

Richard Luscombe
Sat 11 Apr 2026 08.33 EDT

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Even as Integrity, the mission moniker for the Orion capsule of Artemis II, ascended into the heavens days ago, Donald Trump was announcing his intention to slash Nasa’s budget by 23%, including a 46% cut for space science initiatives. And the Artemis program that has run years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget offers no guarantees that the next, far harder stages will run as smoothly.

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Isaacman said he supported the White House desire to strip a further $6bn in funding from his agency, insisting that the levels “are sufficient” to meet “high expectations and deliver on all mission priorities”.

But Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, said Isaacman’s argument made no sense.

“The administrator is part of the administration, and the budget document is an official policy statement of the administration, so he has to be onboard,” he said.

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