NASA Earth Science Faces Loss Of More Than Half Its Budget; Data It Provides Spans The Sciences

EDIT

The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year would, if enacted, bring NASA’s spending back to 1961 levels, with cuts to science divisions including Earth science tantamount to an “extinction-level event,” according to a piece by Asa Stahl, science editor for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for space science and exploration. The overall budget would be cut by nearly 25 percent, and Earth science more than halved. The White House has described these cuts as an attempt to refocus NASA on space exploration by prioritizing missions to the Moon and Mars.

In May, NASA closed a New York office that housed the Goddard Institute for Space Studies lab, part of the agency dedicated to studying climate change and other Earth sciences. The researchers who worked at that site weren’t fired, but a brain drain of NASA scientists has begun and may well accelerate. As of late July, nearly 4,000 NASA staff had opted for early retirements and similar arrangements, according to a statement from the agency. The number of departures may still rise. “[T]he last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA’s wokforce,” a group of current and former agency employees wrote in a recent open letter. NASA’s chief scientist and senior climate adviser, Katherine Calvin, was let go earlier this year.

“The cutting-edge science taking place at NASA has far-reaching societal benefits, more than many people are aware. The climate crisis is a public health crisis, and fighting these crises will not happen in a vacuum,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the top Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, wrote to Undark in an emailed statement. “Unleashing chaos on the agency by gutting science programs, firing employees without cause, and proposing draconian budget cuts for NASA,” she added, “will hurt Americans and jeopardize the future of our rising generations.”

Several NASA spokespeople, as well as Haynes and other scientists at the agency, as well as House and Senate Republicans involved with space policy, did not respond to requests for interviews, or referred Undark to public budget documents. In a brief emailed statement, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said the agency “remains committed to our mission as we work with a more prioritized budget.” She did not address how proposed cuts could affect environmental data and public health work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has partnered with NASA on climate research, also did not comment.

EDIT

https://undark.org/2025/08/18/nasa-public-health-research/