This is not a new idea. After success launch of the Artemis II mission This week, NASA will fly the SLS rocket at least a few more times, perhaps via Artemis V, as Congress mandated. The budget proposal released Friday supports this plan. Isaacman has expressed his hope that NASA will move away from the expendable SLS rocket when a commercial alternative, such as SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s New Glenn, becomes available for human launches. That is still at least several years away.
“To execute missions beyond Artemis V, NASA will initiate a new acquisition for commercial transportation services to launch astronauts to rendezvous with lunar landers,” the agency said in a budget summary released Friday. This new acquisition is expected to begin in fiscal year 2027, NASA said.
Elements of the vision unveiled by Isaacman and other NASA officials last week, such as deep-space nuclear propulsion, nuclear reactors on the Moon and prospecting for lunar resources, will require significant investment in new space technology. One new space technology project that NASA would initiate with this budget is funding to support a commercial effort to produce, store, transfer and test rocket boosters generated from resources on the surface of the Moon.
But the overall news for NASA’s space technology portfolio is not good. The White House is proposing a $297 million reduction in NASA’s space technology directorate from this year (and $476 million less than in 2025), with cuts targeting what the Trump administration calls “frivolous technology projects without applications.”
The White House budget office also proposes cutting $1.1 billion in funding for the International Space Station, while keeping the ISS retirement and deorbiting on track for 2030. This runs counter to a congressional bill Supported by key lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it extends the ISS through 2032.
NASA last week announced a new strategy to help commercial companies develop their own manned outposts to replace the ISS in low-Earth orbit. Although delays and worries Regarding the availability of a new commercial station when NASA retires the ISS, the White House requested only a small increase in funding for this program in 2027.
The administration’s spending plan would continue Trump’s long-standing effort to reduce funding for NASA’s educational programs to zero.
