On: NASA cancels $450M mission to drill for ice on the...

[choilive]

Not entirely on NASA, Congress slashed their budget causing a -$500M hole, with future years budget not looking to fare much better so they had to make some tough decisions. Sounds like other missions in the same program are going to pick up VIPER's objectives though.

[bko → choilive]

Sure looks like they cut it 2% in 2024, but they've increased it every year over the last 10 years, even in real terms (maybe 2022/2023 was a bit under flat)

Year Budget Change

2000 13,428

2001 14,095 4.97%

2002 14,405 2.20%

2003 14,610 1.42%

2004 15,152 3.71%

2005 15,602 2.97%

2006 15,125 -3.06%

2007 15,861 4.87%

2008 17,833 12.43%

2009 17,782 -0.29%

2010 18,724 5.30%

2011 18,448 -1.47%

2012 17,770 -3.68%

2013 16,865 -5.09%

2014 17,647 4.64%

2015 18,010 2.06%

2016 19,300 7.16%

2017 19,508 1.08%

2018 20,736 6.29%

2019 21,500 3.68%

2020 22,629 5.25%

2021 23,271 2.84%

2022 24,041 3.31%

2023 25,384 5.59%

2024 24,875 -2.01%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

[bryanlarsen → bko]

The problem is that most of that budget is earmarked for huge money-wasters like SLS, and those earmarks are growing. So the non-earmarked budget shrinks.

[xenadu02 → bryanlarsen]

This is a huge part of it.

Congress might increase the budget by 3% but when they force something like SLS on NASA that eats 6% of the budget in real terms it was a 3% cut.

And this assumes the employees don't deserve any raises or bonuses.

[Retric → bko]

You’re looking at the Nominal Dollars (Millions) column which is meaningless. The 2023 Constant Dollars (Millions) has

  2010: 26,162 
  2015: 23,150
  2020: 26,559

Then the actual budget in 2023 is down to 25,384, and 2024 is 24,124 a 5% cut from the year before. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

[zamadatix → bko]

In real terms that looks pretty flat for both the last 10 years and since the beginning of the list. Doesn't explain the project cut but also isn't really real budget growth either.