Statement on the Fiscal Year 2025 President's Budget Request for NASA

Pasadena, CA (March 13th, 2024) — The Planetary Society, the world’s largest independent space advocacy organization, issued the following regarding the President's Budget Request for NASA in fiscal year 2025:

"The President’s fiscal year 2025 budget request for NASA places further constraints on the agency’s science and exploration directorates. While it provides a modest increase to the agency’s topline compared to 2024, given recent inflation, it represents a loss of nearly 2 billion dollars of buying power relative to NASA’s recent peak in 2020.

Furthermore, the budget contributes uncertainty to NASA’s space science programs and workforce by canceling, delaying, and pitting various missions against others for funding. Mars Sample Return, the top priority planetary science project of the coming decade, receives an unprecedented "TBD" placeholder where its funding request should be. If these budgetary trends continue, no top-priority flagship missions will be possible within a balanced portfolio in any of NASA’s science divisions, whether it be Mars Sample Return, Habitable Worlds Observatory, or the Geospace Dynamics Constellation. To address this, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate budget must grow relative to inflation, not shrink, to ensure the nation’s continued leadership in space and the pursuit of transformative scientific discoveries.

NASA is placed in an impossible situation: the agency has been directed to pursue the most ambitious program since Apollo within a mere 0.36% of the national budget. The arbitrary spending caps imposed by Congress in 2024 and 2025 do not help this situation. Fiscal responsibility is important, but NASA has repeatedly proven its value to the nation and to the world. It has earned its place as a priority within the federal budget by presenting a unique means by which to invigorate the nation’s STEM workforce, strengthen international partnerships, and better understand our planet and ourselves.

We urge Congress to correct these proposed budgetary shortfalls in 2025 and to provide direction and support for top-priority missions within a balanced NASA science directorate. By investing in our civil space program, Congress will preserve the U.S. global leadership in space and science, ensure a highly-capable aerospace and science workforce, and enable the ambitious and inspirational space program our nation is uniquely capable of pursuing."

Press Resources

Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy, is available for interviews. Please arrange with Danielle Gunn, chief communications officer, at [email protected]

Resource: The Planetary Society’s FY 2025 NASA Budget tracking page