Donald Trump now puts NASA in danger as a whole

Six months after his second inauguration, not only US President Donald Trump’s ambitious vision of sending Astronauts to Mars seems to be increasingly questioning. The question arises whether NASA survives as a whole.

Another departure

Despite its pithy announcement to realize the “obvious fate” of the United States in space, the US room trip authority NASA is faced with a deep crisis. On Monday quit Makenzie Lystrup, director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, now also resigned from August 1st. The facility in Maryland plays a central role in significant NASA missions such as the Hubble world dream telescope and the Osiris-Rex asteroid mission. Lystrup’s decision follows just a few weeks after Laurie Leshin’s resignation, head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These high -ranking departures are lined up in a series of setbacks that NASA has recently shaken.

This also includes the controversial appointment by Transport Minister Sean Duffy as NASA boss – a step that has been criticized in view of his parallel responsibility for other government areas. In addition, the authority is currently losing massive personnel: According to a report by Politico, more than 2,000 leaders are facing farewell – many of them from central scientific areas.

The planned budget cuts of the Trump government are particularly worrying. The new budget provides for a halving of the NASA funds for scientific programs. Should the Republican dominated Congress agreed to the proposal, the space agency with the smallest budget and staff has had to make do with the early 1960s – i.e. in front of the first moon landing.

Trump has years

In one open letter expressed NASA employees publicly criticized the political influence and warned of “devastating consequences” for science, security and innovative strength. The planned cuts are arbitrary and contradicted the priorities of the congress. A NASA spokesman rejected the concerns as unfounded.

Nevertheless, the voices are increasing, which doubt whether Trump’s large-gauge Mars plans can still be realized under these conditions-or whether a future government has to get the US space ride on track again. And this does not only apply to NASA: the private partners also have massive problems. It is far from clear whether SpaceX, for example, does not get the starship that is so important for the moon and Mars missions. And the large aviation group Boeing also rushes from failure to fail.