In a grand show of unity, all seven living former Associate Administrators of NASA's Science Mission Directorate have signed a joint letter opposing the Trump administration's proposed 47% cut to NASA's 2026 science budget. They "unanimously urge Congress to reject the proposed cuts to NASA's budget" and request that the NASA Science Mission Directorate retain its 2025 budget.
The seven signatories — John Grunsfeld, Alphonso Diaz, Lennard Fisk, Wesley Huntress, Alan Stern, Edward Weiler, and Thomas Zurbuchen — warn the "indiscriminate cut" would end dozens of current and future missions, "severely [damaging] a peerless and immensely capable engineering and scientific workforce" and "needlessly [putting] to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer investments." Furthermore, the budget cut would eliminate the United States as a global leader in space science, ceding power to China and other nations.
