Gateway, SLS, Orion, are dead, and Artemis is on the chopping block.
SLS deserves to be cut, as Boeing clearly failed. Orion too. No big loss there.
But I have a hard time believing it's a coincidence that the budget favors Musk in a major way, with SLS/Orion to be replaced with "more cost-effective commercial systems", and $650M increase in budget for human space exploration plus $1B for Mars exploration.
And this is NOT about saving money or reducing federal spending -- it's shifting money away from science to defense and border security, which is increasing by $150+B. So short-sighted.
SLS deserves to be cut, as Boeing clearly failed. Orion too. No big loss there.
But I have a hard time believing it's a coincidence that the budget favors Musk in a major way, with SLS/Orion to be replaced with "more cost-effective commercial systems", and $650M increase in budget for human space exploration plus $1B for Mars exploration.
And this is NOT about saving money or reducing federal spending -- it's shifting money away from science to defense and border security, which is increasing by $150+B. So short-sighted.
More details in this article: https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/05/03/proposed-24-percent-cu...