Trump's NASA Budget Guts Earth Science and Totally Eliminates Education

NASA budget would cut Earth science and education, Washington Post

"President Trump's first federal budget seems to make good on his campaign promises to shift NASA's focus away from Earth and toward space. But it doesn't reveal where he thinks the agency should be headed -- to Mars, the moon or elsewhere. The budget document fits with Trump's interest in ceding parts of NASA's mission, such as International Space Station operations and maintenance of satellites, to the private space industry. The total cut to the Earth-science budget is $102 million, or 5 percent of the program's annual budget, and it almost exclusively targets missions aimed at understanding climate change -- the ocean monitoring program PACE; the Orbiting Carbon ­Observatory-3; the Deep Space Climate Observatory; and the CLARREO Pathfinder, which measures heat in Earth's atmosphere. Also on the chopping block: the entire NASA Education office, which runs camps and enrichment programs, provides internships and scholarships for young scientists, and oversees efforts to support women and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields."

Trump's NASA budget preserves Mars mission, cuts Earth science, asteroid trip, education, USA Today

"No more mission to bring astronauts to an asteroid, but stable funding for a trip to Mars. A cut in Earth science programs, but support for a mission to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Elimination of education programs, but more resources to improve cybersecurity of the space program. President Trump is proposing a $19.1 billion budget for NASA in 2018 that is about the same as the current year's $19.3 billion allocation - not bad considering the president is proposing deep cuts in many non-Defense programs. EPA alone would see a 31% reduction. But Trump's vision for NASA calls for some dramatic shifts from the priorities the space agency pursued under President Obama, according to a broad budget outline the White House released Thursday. Line-item details on the administration's proposed spending plan for NASA and other executive branch agencies are expected in the coming weeks."

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