New Delhi: The US Congress has introduced, passed and dispatched a budget bill to the US President that rejects nearly all of the cuts proposed by the Trump Administration for the 2026 fiscal year. The budget only cuts one per cent off the topline. In May 2025, the Trump administration proposed a ‘Skinny Budget’ that defunded many planned and operational NASA missions, with the US Senate subsequently moving to save most of the missions. At the 12th Global Space Exploration (GLEX 2025) summit was organised at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre in Dwarka, the Director General of the German Space Agency, Walther Pelzer expressed hope that the US Congress would save the axed missions.
The NEO Surveyor mission to spot threatening asteroids, the DaVinci and Veritas missions to Venus, the Dragonfly mission to Titan, the OSIRIS-APEX mission to the Asteroid Apophis are all going to continue as planned. The Orion Crew Capsule and the Space Launch System will also continue beyond Artemis III. The Gateway, a planned space station in cislunar space will also continue to be developed. This was an international collaboration. The most distant operational planetary orbiter, the Juno mission to Jupiter was threatened by the proposed budget cuts, but has now been saved as well.
The Mars Sample Return
While most of the proposed and operational missions have now been funded, one mission that has been chopped is the Mars Sample Return Mission. This mission was in trouble long before the proposed budget cuts, with private companies unable to come up with a mission profile that would have stayed within budget. Following the proposed budget cuts, Lockheed Martin offered a fixed-price contract to return the samples for $3 billion. Ten chalk-sized samples collected by the Perseverance Rover have been deposited at a Mars ‘Sample Depot’. Preliminary analysis indicates that these samples are biologically relevant.