Trump Cuts NASA Budget, US House Worries About Asteroid Strike

The US House of Representatives through the Committee on Space, Science, and Technology has voiced concerns about President Donald Trump's plan to cut the budget of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) by up to 24 percent. The budget proposal even includes a 47 percent cut for science programs, including planetary defense.

The House committee is worried that the slim budget proposal could weaken NASA's ability to detect hazardous asteroids. Trump is also accused of ignoring NASA's significant role up to this point.

"If implemented, the government's skinny budget proposal under Trump's administration risks putting NASA on a path to irrelevance," said Representative Valerie Foushee (D-North Carolina), quoted from a report by Space published on Friday, May 16, 2025. She also added that it would endanger the economic and national security of the US. "Handing over space leadership to the enemy and jeopardizing our position in the world."

The US House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology held a working meeting with scientists to discuss what NASA can do if a hazardous asteroid is detected to be on a collision course with Earth. This topic gained attention especially after the commotion caused by asteroid 2024 YR4.

The meeting on Thursday, May 15, 2025, mostly centered around the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, the first space telescope dedicated to detecting asteroids that threaten Earth. This mission is expected to significantly enhance the capability to detect hazardous asteroids.

The infrared technology in the NEO Surveyor telescope enables tracking objects that are difficult to detect by light-based telescopes. For example, asteroids coming from the direction of the sun-such as the asteroid that exploded in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, belong to this type of asteroid.

"We do not yet know of any large objects with a significant risk of colliding with Earth in the next 100 years - but there are still many that have not been discovered," said Nicola Fox, an associate administrator at NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Amy Mainzer, the lead researcher of the NEO Surveyor mission from UCLA, added that the telescope will accelerate the identification of asteroid sizes from the collected orbital data. "That is a very important part in determining collision energy," she said.

Matthew Payne, the director of the Minor Planet Center, stated that they are currently tracking 38,000 near-Earth objects, including more than 2,500 potentially hazardous ones. "The impact of just one of them could be devastating," he said.

Fox estimates that NEO Surveyor could be launched in 2028 if funding is available. However, the initial White House budget document suggests the potential closure of research centers such as NASA Goddard and Ames, which could hinder coordination with FEMA in emergency response. Budget cuts are also feared to create a brain drain, especially with mass layoffs in institutions such as NOAA that monitor natural disasters.

"A very sensible question is whether NASA should actually spend more money on monitoring and defending against asteroids," said Representative George Whitesides (D-California).

When asked about the potential use of AI in asteroid tracking, Payne and Mainzer agreed on its effectiveness, but Fox emphasized that, "Adequate funding is of course very important."

Fox stressed the importance of global collaboration if the US is unable to fund this effort alone. "If we cannot unite to face a large object hurtling towards this planet, then in what else can we unite?"

Editor's Choice: NASA Faces 24.3% Budget Cut: What's at Stake?

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