Europe passes record-breaking space budget while NASA hit with deep cuts

A series of people sit at four different tables making a square to face each other with various flags of their corresponding countries next to them.

BREMEN, Germany — The European Space Agency member states have approved a record-breaking budget for the agency's next three-year period, including an increase in funding for science exploration and dual-use technologies for security and defense.

The budget of nearly 22.1 billion Euros ($25.63 billion) was agreed upon at the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ministerial Council — a high-level conference of its 23 member states held every three years — which took place in Bremen, Germany from Nov. 25 to Nov. 27. The funding pledged by the member states will cover the period between 2026 and 2028 and is more than 5 billion Euros ($5.8 billion) higher than that subscribed for the previous budgetary period.