Reading about space exploration used to be one of the most exciting parts of my day. I’d log on to work and look for the latest stories surrounding NASA’s ongoing missions. I reported often on what the James Webb Space Telescope had discovered and sat on the edge of my seat as we waited to see how NASA would accomplish the D.A.R.T. test. Now, though, I find it hard to get excited about anything having to do with space exploration.
The sad thing is, I know exactly why it’s hard to be excited right now. We’re living in a very tumultuous time. War is breaking out all over the world, and there are ongoing political issues that hit close to home, like Trump’s ongoing trade war with the rest of the world.
But the real issue holding me back from being excited about space exploration and the goals that scientists have in understanding our universe comes down to a set of bad decisions being made by those at the top. Like it or not, NASA is a government agency, and that means that the agency relies entirely on what the American government allows it to do.
This means that Trump’s proposed budget cuts for 2026 will kill many exciting space exploration missions. So many, in fact, that it’s hard to even be excited about what the future of space exploration might look like. Sure, SpaceX is doing some great things, and Starship is exciting, but Musk’s company is far from the only beacon of success in the space industry.
The reason that SpaceX has been able to pull off what it has is because of what NASA has accomplished over the years. NASA walked so that SpaceX could run. So, taking away the trust that we have put in the agency for all these decades, when it’s so close to doing some truly remarkable things, just feels like a betrayal.
Maybe I’m just being idealistic. We always knew that NASA planned to rely on commercial space companies to help carry out its missions, and that’s fine. It would help cut costs immensely, and having more innovation and competition is never a bad thing. But if these proposed budget cuts do go through and NASA sees so much ripped away, where does that leave things?
How long do we have until NASA is a thing of the past, and all of America’s space exploration is carried out by commercial companies like SpaceX? I don’t know about you, but a world where space exploration and scientific discovery is driven by men just looking for ways to make another dollar is not a future that I can easily get behind.
And that’s not to say that there aren’t great people working at these companies. Many of these companies have very scientific-minded people behind them. But, at the end of the day, I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to the way our nation looks at everything as a way to make money in some way. Even now, our government is in a race to claim land in space before China can because of what we can gain from it.
I hope that I’m wrong. I hope that we see the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. I hope that we somehow pull off the Mars Sample Return, and one day put humankind on another planet. NASA has made a lot of missteps along the way, sure. But, is cutting out the agency’s heart while it’s still beating really the answer to getting things back on track?
Because that’s what it feels like we’re doing.
