No one could have imagined that the budget cuts NASA has been suffering since this summer could put the evolution of science at risk, right, right? Well, a United States Senate report has just confirmed it, and the cuts, moreover, were not even approved by Congress.
The order came from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which blocked funds with a mechanism that experts now say is unconstitutional. The result, according to the report, is that they have put on hold safety tests and also all active scientific programs. Institutional violation that threatens astronauts, space missions and ourselves as a planet.
Cuts outside the law
The document details that the White House asked NASA to operate with the presidential budget, even though there was no appropriations law approved. That meant they worked with restrictions without legal basis, postponing or canceling critical tasks that already had Congressional backing.
Safety
The manned flight teams were the first to complain because several hardware and software tests have been left undone due to lack of resources.
Delaying validations increases the risk of failures in mid-flight, you cannot do more with fewer resources, you cannot cut safety, you simply cannot.
Talent that leaves
With the reductions in budget allocations, dozens of collaborators have left, the losses are in the millions, and now NASA is ceasing to be a reference in the world of research and science.
How the decisions were made
The OMB instructed NASA to respect the caps of the presidential plan and, from the agency’s leadership, teams were asked not to spend outside that framework. Even though there were funds approved in previous years, contracts and work orders were frozen. The result was delays and a blockade that had little to do with the efficiency they were seeking…
A culture of fear
Several employees claim they are afraid of possible reprisals if they point out risks or question cancellations. If engineers stop documenting problems out of fear, the organization loses its “immune system” and the possibility grows that the agency will break down more and more…
What is being lost?
Astronomy, studies about our planet, orbital calendars… Everything related to the research NASA was carrying out is at risk, and postponing missions can mean losing information about a specific planetary conjunction, problems detecting climate changes… so many things…
What can we do?
For now, demand that the legally based funds be restored and look for those responsible, but above all, that the safety of each mission be evaluated with technical and not political or economic criteria. The commitment to this agency has to be the highest because there is much at stake…
Cutting budgets of agencies is problematic, even more so in this case where they kept quiet and the cost has come in the form of failures, delays and overruns. The agency needs support, we are not talking about luxuries, we are talking about minimum pillars to protect the missions and the people behind them. Even more now that competition for space is trending topic, does the government want to halt decades of discoveries? We cannot (and should not) let them…
Q&A about Nasa’s cuts:
- What happened with NASA? The Trump administration began applying illegal cuts before they were approved, forcing NASA to work with fewer resources.
- Why is it a problem? Because important tests have been canceled, there is a lack of personnel and some experts fear this could end in a serious accident in future missions.
- How does it affect the workers? Many employees feel they cannot talk about the risks without risking their job.
- What does the United States lose with this? Scientific innovation is slowed down, internships are closed and young talent is lost. In the long term, the country could lose space leadership to other powers.