Earlier this week, NASA passed a major milestone for the Artemis II mission by stacking the Space Launch System rocket, including the Orion Integrity built by Lockheed Martin. This important step comes less than four months before the launch window for the mission opens in February. Between then and now, “Integration of SLS and Orion represents a major milestone in our progress on Artemis,” said NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, who is also Secretary of Transportation. From now on, continuing systems tests are crucial to ensuring mission success and crew safety.
Despite the ongoing government shutdown, NASA has maintained its 2027 deadline for the launch of Artemis III which will bring humans back to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December of 1972. China has committed itself to a crewed lunar landing in 2030, hastening the need for NASA’s full effort and devotion to this program. However, the FY 2026 budget proposal slashes the space agency’s budget from a low $25 billion to a destitute $18.8 billion. This leaves many experts worried about the state in which NASA will operate.
Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine raised alarms about how the “probability of beating China approaches zero, rapidly.” He called for a strong change in the overall structure of the program.
Bridenstine’s warning comes in the wake of the Voyager Declaration, whereby hundreds of current and former NASA employees expressed great frustration with the state of the agency and lack of funding. Many are also concerned with the growing culture of fear within NASA that impedes progress by hindering constructive criticism and proper analysis.
“I believe space exploration is awesome. It shows the ability and intellect the human species has…” says eSTEM student Aryan Lal. “To me it seems like a really big cut. I would love to see more funding being implemented into the science fields. I don’t know much about why the administration is cutting it down,” he admitted, “…we as a country have a lot of debt… but I think there could be alternate solutions.”
ERHS student Joan Narciso offered her opinion.
“I feel like two truths can coexist. I do believe that money does deserve to go into helping poverty, but I also believe that space exploration should be prioritized.” She concluded with this, “I think the main goal of humanity is to just keep advancing… to keep furthering our understanding. So I think it’s just a general mission for us as a human race.”
Despite all difficulties, the mission remains clear: return humans to the Moon. It puts us ahead of our adversaries and it advances human knowledge and understanding, the “mission for us as a human race.”
