The prospect of a seamless decision being crucial earlier than Sept. 30 is excessive, so anticipate that we’ll be monitoring the specter of pocket rescissions and impoundment round that point. The outcomes of the 2026 midterm elections will decide the steadiness of energy in Washington, and relying on their final result, Congress must resolve to both go full-year appropriations or kick the choice to the one hundred and twentieth Congress.
The Planetary Society and our companions will stay actively concerned in monitoring the FY 2027 appropriations course of and providing alternatives so that you can get entangled, like our Day of Motion on April 19-20, 2026.
Govt actions
On Dec. 18, 2025, the identical day that Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA Administrator, President Trump signed an govt order titled “Making certain American Area Superiority,” signaling a shift in administration priorities in the case of house coverage. The manager order set clear targets for People returning to the Moon by 2028 and establishing preliminary components of a everlasting lunar outpost by 2030. It additionally directs the deployment of a nuclear reactor on the Moon, requires winding down the Worldwide Area Station by 2030 (although that’s already nationwide coverage), and clearly prioritizes lunar exploration over a rushed Mars program favored by the administration in early 2025.
This isn’t out of the abnormal. The primary Trump Administration expressed its house coverage priorities via govt orders, labeling them as Area Coverage Directives. Now that we’ve got the primary of those from the second time period, ought to we anticipate the administration to set extra coverage this manner?
The outcomes are nonetheless unsure, because the President’s earlier automobile for creating these Area Coverage Directives, the Nationwide Area Council, was disbanded. The duties of this council, which the President had revived in 2017, now fall on the Workplace of Science and Expertise Coverage. This fulcrum shift for house coverage growth might point out that house exploration doesn’t stand alone, however within the eyes of the administration exists to bolster different know-how priorities: from the Golden Dome to synthetic intelligence to quantum computing.
It bears watching whether or not the administration makes use of govt motion to work round Congress on points the place there’s disagreement, notably because it pertains to spending. The Planetary Society might be monitoring govt actions that have an effect on the NASA Science portfolio and flagging alternatives for the house neighborhood to weigh in.
Different laws
In the meantime, as Govt Department priorities play out, Congress should still make use of its personal mechanisms for setting the path of house coverage. Past appropriating funds, Congress will typically step in to steer some NASA actions via focused laws and authorization payments. Congress hasn’t handed a NASA authorization for the reason that 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. In 2024, then-Chairman of the Home Science Committee Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) led a bipartisan NASA Authorization Act to passage within the Home, however the Senate didn’t take up the invoice earlier than the tip of the yr. In early 2025, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) launched a brand new bipartisan NASA Authorization Act with vital updates to the earlier yr’s Home invoice. Up to now, this Senate-led invoice has not seen any official motion. Based mostly on present political priorities and developments within the house sector, there’s curiosity in Congress passing a invoice that addresses some main themes:
Science. Congress protected NASA Science in FY 2026. Now the query is what is going to occur in FY 2027 and past. The Nationwide Academies’ Decadal Surveys set an bold technique for house science. An authorization might maintain NASA accountable to those consensus objectives and reaffirm congressional endorsement of those necessary paperwork.
Mars. Although Mars Pattern Return is formally canceled, these tantalizing samples of martian regolith nonetheless sit within the stomach of the Perseverance rover and in caches on the floor. The FY 2026 price range put aside $110 million for Mars Future Missions to develop applied sciences that maintain the nation engaged on Mars exploration. An authorization might give additional steering to NASA on creating a roadmap for future robotic and crewed missions, holding the door open for these samples’ eventual evaluation in terrestrial laboratories.
