NASA is preparing for substantial budget cuts that could force cancellations of ongoing and upcoming missions across the solar system, and experts warn that it is facing a “brutal” future.

The space agency has already launched several layoffs as part of a broad restructuring of the US federal agency by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an independent task force led by Elon Musk. Earlier this week it announced it would close its offices for technology, policy and strategy. Chief scientist’s office. The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Branch, located in Washington, DC’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, represents a total of 23 employment for its agents.

“This magnitude change is by no means easy, but our strength comes from our mission and our shared commitment to each other,” NASA’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, emailed staff members. “We encourage each other to support us as we move forward.”

One employee in the Technology, Policy and Strategy office who learned they were fired this week and given anonymity for fear of retaliation says that their office is a “easy target” as it was set up under Joe Biden’s control. “Some people thought this might come,” they say.

The role of NASA’s Chief Technologist and Chief Economist is within the office, and “supported strategic planning across the agency,” the employee says. This includes managing recent increases in recent lunar missions when planning lunar-based landing sites and operations and “preventing these missions from interfering with each other.”

“There’s a lot of interest in the Antarctic of the Moon, and there’s concern that it works close to each other,” they said. “I don’t think we’ll address these issues moving forward.”

These losses are expected to be just the beginning of NASA’s much larger ull. Casey Drier American Space Exploration Advocacy Group says there are rumours that in his upcoming budget request, President Donald Trump will direct NASA’s overall scientific budget to be cut by 50%. This is a blow to NASA’s office of Science Mission Directors, and “everything that isn’t pretty much everything NASA does is not a space flight mission,” says Dreier. Currently, we have a budget of around $7 billion from NASA’s total annual budget of $25 billion.

Scientists familiar with NASA policy-making say they spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation and say that the cuts requested by the president must be approved by Congress. “NASA is really loved on a bipartisan basis,” they say. But if the cut goes on, they add that they “essentially end to NASA science.” “The mission is not safe.”

Throwing the budget by half “will be a very brutal outcome, symbolizing the nation’s return to space,” Dreyer said, and would result in the cancellation of many missions. Like James Webb’s Space Telescope, some of their Prime missions will likely survive, but the most at risk are early planning or later missions. These include the climate satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Voyager Mission, where patience and curiosity on Mars was the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.

The impact on NASA may be permanent. “If you completely destroy a people’s pipeline, you’ll have serious, long-term consequences,” says Dreier. “It’s an extinction level event.”

In this week’s letter to Peter, California’s Zoe Lofgren, a top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Science and Space Technology Committee, urged NASA to cut and fight back. “Doge is trying to reduce and burn NASA’s core capabilities,” she wrote. “It’s essential to stand up to NASA’s important work.”

I’ll talk New ScientistLofgren warned that the situation could have international consequences. “Destroying NASA’s highly skilled workforce will be a major leap for the US and a major leap for China,” she said. “Meanwhile-less reductions will undermine cutting edge innovation, curious science, and institutional ability to maintain leadership in human exploration.”