Keith’s note: NASA’s budget is going to be slashed one way or another. Despite all the talk about making NASA more focused – or efficient – or “greater”, NASA science will suffer. Scores of missions will either be canceled, shutdown, or put on indefinite pause. Meanwhile Europe and our officially designated foe China surge ahead to fill gaps that we have created. NASA has yet to find the secret sauce wherein they can walk and chew gum at the same time. i.e. do astonishing things that no one has done before while conveying the scientific value of these accomplishments to decision makers and simultaneously, the practical, everyday utility to people and families as they try and make it through their daily lives. For what it is worth, as I have noted before: NASA has led space science and “Made America Great In Space” for more than half a century. Let’s not let that science leadership fade. Let’s expand it further. This won’t happen on its own. NASA must get its act together, find its mojo again, and put forth the multiple reasons why we should use and explore space – tailored to the various audiences who need – and deserve – to be informed. One size does not fit all. While NASA needs to learn how to explain itself to citizens and policymakers, how it explains its accomplishments on the global stage should be simple. Very simple – since NASA has led the way by:

• touching the sun
• visiting every planet in our solar system
• discovering over 6,000 planets orbiting other stars
• launched the first weather and Earth resource satellites
• sending humans to walk on another world
• doing the first offworld search for life
• moving an asteroid
• finding water on the Moon and Mars
• discovering oceans inside icy moons
• sailing across interstellar space
• peering back to the dawn of the universe
• developing a global brand that all nations aspire to

Keith’s note: according to NBC “A large swath of the U.S. currently does not have the basic, ground-level immunity necessary to stop the spread of viruses that had once receded into the past, a six-month NBC News investigation in collaboration with scientists at Stanford University finds.” Given public policy ignorance that substitutes for epidemiology (Science) I can’t wait for all of the public opinion rants and arm waving about the Environmental Impact Studies for NASA Mars Sample return to Earth. That is – if that mission ever actually happens. Then it’s up to China to worry about this. Or not.

Keith’s Note: I just spoke with Deutsche Welle about the NASA announcement of biosignatures on Mars [Audio]

Keith’s note: I have been editing Astrobiology.com – @Astrobiology – for 30 years. I ran peer review panels for NASA Exobiology research before that. There have been a lot of “almost” announcements over the past 30 or so years – but this one is really solid. We have not found extant life on Mars – but we seem to have found remnants of something biological from Mars’ deep past aka ‘biosignatures’ – in rocks ~350 million years old which match rocks of similar ages – with biosignatures – that we find here on our own planet from Early Earth. See NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year.

Keith’s note: according to “NASA to Share Details of New Perseverance Mars Rover Finding“ there will be some Mars news – likely Astrobiology related – announced at 11 am EDT Wednesday 10 Sep. Just a guess …. from 56th LPSC a few months ago: “The Detection of a Potential Biosignature By the Perseverance Rover on Mars“ by upcoming press event participant Joel Hurowitz: “Upon entering Neretva Vallis,Perseverance investigated a set of distinct mudstone and conglomerate outcrops. We report on measurements from these rocks and describe the discovery of a potential biosignature”. Again, just a guess. Watch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-StZggK4hhA

Keith’s note: two items from NASA about the Dragonfly mission just dropped – almost simultaneously: “Dragonfly Astrobiology Mission Progresses Through Key Development And Test Activities“, which spins things in a positive light and highlights progress made thus far, and “NASA’s Management Of The Dragonfly Project“ from the NASA Office of Inspector General which highlights schedule delays and cost overruns for Dragonfly. NASA PAO usually has a heads up from OIG that a report is coming out. Or maybe it is just a coincidence. That said, NASA is simply ignoring the true progress of this mission and why it has been delayed. Oh yes and NASA has immense budget pressures right now.

• NASA OIG says: “In January 2022, Dragonfly was approved to continue development with an updated estimated life-cycle cost range of $2.1 to $2.5 billion and expected launch date of June 2027. Then in March 2023, NASA directed project officials to initiate a replan due to funding constraints. The replan, which was completed in July 2023, included new cost, staffing, and schedule plans. As a result, the project estimated a new launch readiness date of July 2028 with an expected arrival at Titan in 2034. By the time NASA formally established the project’s cost and schedule baseline in April 2024, life-cycle costs had grown to $3.35 billion and the launch readiness date was delayed by over 2 years.”
• NASA PAO says “NASA’s Dragonfly mission has cleared several key design, development and testing milestones and remains on track toward launch in July 2028.” (no mention of any cost overruns. delays etc.)

Update: see below. Science Magazine is trying to bully me. Keith’s note: Science magazine is retracting a NASA paper they published 15 years ago – “A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus“ – but they are not saying exactly why they are doing so – other than a new standard they just invented. And it took them 15 years to figure this out. Statement from NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate Nicola Fox: (more below)

Keith’s note: according to this Reuters article: “NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes speaking at the same town hall, agreed, saying it would “probably be considered irresponsible” to wait for the congressional budget process. The letter added that Hughes recently ordered NASA science programs targeted for cancellation in Trump’s budget request to stop issuing press releases celebrating new scientific results and achievements.” In addition, senior staff at recent meetings at NASA with Hughes have been told not to expect any help from Congress in pushing back against the plan embodied in the President’s FY 2026 Budget Request i.e. multiple mission cancellations and large personnel layoffs. This is in direct contrast to an offer made last week to senior NASA staff by Acting Interim Administrator Duffy to listen to – and then consider – pushing for budget increases (restoration) for items planned for deletion – if a solid case can be made. And today the “Voyager Declaration”, signed by many NASA employees complaint about a variety of unpopular actions, certainly made national news. Word has it that Hughes and his staff were not at all pleased by this or the news coverage – especially CNN’s article. Meanwhile, consolidation of and deletion of various NASA social media accounts continues. Of course this has a side benefit of allowing those missions now scheduled to go away to not have any mention made of whatever scientific results they are still quite capable of providing. This of course hastens the ability for them to just fade away.

Keith’s note: Update on the earlier post Going Out Of Business Sale For JPL Satellites: emails are circulating within JPL and NASA that mention a number of satellites that are listed as being targeted for shut down in the President’s FY 2026 budget request. NASA HQ is apparently not waiting for an actual budget. The list of satellites of the discount rack at NASA now includes OCO-2, OCO-3, SAGE III, CLARREO-Pathfinder, GLIMR, DSCOVR, CYGNSS, Terra, Aqua, Aura, and GeoCarb. Stay tuned for more bargains!

Keith’s note: this web reel was just posted by CNN from the end of my interview this morning. OK, I have just about run out of ways / platforms to wave my arms and talk about what NASA needs in order to explore the universe. Your turn. “NASA needs a permanent administrator who understands rocket science and knows how all this stuff works and is committed to lead the agency through these troubles to, you know, better times. That isn’t happening. And it’s very frustrating to the 17-18,000 civil servants and several hundred thousand contractors and the people of America. Please Mr. President send us a real NASA Administrator so we can get on with the whole explore the universe thing.”

Keith’s note: Moments ago I spoke with CNN about NASA’s budget, science, layoffs, competition with China and newly appointed “interim” NASA Administrator DOT Secretary Sean Duffy. [Audio]

Keith’s note: I will be on “CNN This Morning” at 6:35 am EDT on Thursday to talk about NASA layoffs and whether America is going to cede its space leadership to China. At 9:30 am EDT there will be a full Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Markup which has jurisdiction over NASA, NSF, NOAA, NIST, etc. . According to Politico Pro “when asked Wednesday if a scheduled Senate markup of the White House’s NASA bill would restore science spending, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) replied, “The answer is yes.”

Keith’s note: the following letter was sent to congressional leaders and signed by every living former NASA Science Associate Administrator: “We are writing in opposition to the Administration’s FY 2026 NASA budget request, which proposes a 47% reduction to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. We request that the Congress preserve U.S. leadership in space science by maintaining funding for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the FY 2025 enacted level.” More below.

Keith’s note: there is an interesting article online at the Washington Post: These scientific advances were ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Will they continue?: “All this knowledge can be labeled “Made in the U.S.A.” All this is our legacy, enabled by federal funding. In just a few months, the Trump administration has undermined U.S. dominance in science, built up over many decades. The federal funding that made America the world’s science leader is threatened with crippling reductions, not just for astronomy and space science but also for fundamental research in energy, chemistry, computer science and preventive medicine.”

Keith’s note: We are the first nation to sail between the stars. America is already “Great in Space”. Lets make it – make NASA – even greater – not weaker.

Keith’s note: with regard to commercial solutions to missions being canceled, data archiving etc. – Nice idea. But actually this is a disaster in the making. With the rush to spontaneously cancel a wide swath of missions, there is no transition plan for data recovery or archiving in a structured fashion in place at NASA or by the Administration. It is all chaos. Data will be lost, mangled, parsed, and scattered. So unless dedicated people go out and buy a bunch of 10 TB drives and skirt government regulations and save it on their own, this will become a data diaspora. And thus the loss of these missions will be compounded by this scattered data. This has happened before and it is happening again. I have seen this happen at NASA with my own eyes. Not everything will end up nice and safe in GitHub. Embrace THIS Challenge.

Keith’s note: This was written and originally posted here by Mark V. Sykes, Ph.D., J.D. Senior Scientist, Planetary Science Institute: “This statement is my opinion and does not reflect an official position of the Planetary Science Institute.: Institutions are reeling from the spray of executive orders from the White House since late January. Activities in support of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) have been particular targets, with the cancellation of large numbers of research and other grants and contracts and the bizarre purging of material from government websites (including, for a time, information about the airplane that dropped the first atomic bomb, the Enola Gay). (More below)

Keith’s note: Those of you in the space community know that NASA Science is facing an immense budget cut. Dozens of missions have been cancelled and many missions that are still returning valuable data are being shut off – in many cases to save a few million dollars – a tiny fraction of what it took to mount the missions in the first place. This data will be lost. In the case of New Horizons which is currently traversing the outer solar system, NASA is going to knowingly forfeit a third interstellar mission (after the twin Voyagers). This latest interstellar mission would be done with a healthy spacecraft outfitted with 21st century instrumentation. The Voyagers are minimally functional and will soon fade all together. We could continue to expand America’s pre-eminent exploration of interstellar space until the middle of this century. And that lead will last unchallenged for a generation or more to come. As I noted last month “This is not the way for America to lead the way out into the cosmos. Hopefully Congress will wake up and notice. Let’s ‘Keep America Great In Space’ — not abandon our lead.” More: Stellar Cartography: A Demonstration Of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons.

John R. Casani, a visionary engineer who served a central role in many of NASA’s historic deep space missions, died on Thursday, June 19, 2025, at the age of 92. He was preceded in death by his wife of 39 years, Lynn Casani, in 2008 and is survived by five sons and their families.