{"id":10280,"date":"2026-04-19T10:47:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/a-renewed-threat-to-jpl-as-the-trump-administration-tries-again-to-cut-nasa-los-angeles-times\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:47:50","slug":"a-renewed-threat-to-jpl-as-the-trump-administration-tries-again-to-cut-nasa-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/a-renewed-threat-to-jpl-as-the-trump-administration-tries-again-to-cut-nasa-los-angeles-times\/","title":{"rendered":"A renewed threat to JPL as the Trump administration tries again to cut NASA – Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014 <\/span>NASA recaptured the world\u2019s attention with Artemis II, which took astronauts to the moon and back for the first time in half a century. But the agency\u2019s scientific projects could again be under threat as the Trump administration makes a renewed push to drastically cut their funding \u2014 including at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The cuts, proposed in the Trump administration\u2019s 2027 budget request to Congress, would pose further challenges to the already weakened Caltech-managed lab and could be broadly damaging to American efforts to bring back new discoveries from space. They echo last year\u2019s attempt by the administration to slash NASA funding, which Congress rejected.
Though the Artemis project<\/a> is billed as laying a foundation for a crewed NASA mission to Mars, exploration of the Red Planet is among the endeavors that could be slashed. The rover currently exploring Mars\u2019 ancient river delta and a mission to orbit Venus are among projects with JPL involvement targeted for spending cuts, according to an analysis of the NASA budget proposal by the nonprofit Planetary Society.
\u201cThis isn\u2019t [because] they\u2019re not producing good science anymore. There\u2019s no rhyme or reason to it,\u201d said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, which led opposition to the administration\u2019s similar effort to cut NASA funding last year.
This time, the administration is asking Congress to cut NASA funding by 23% \u2014 including a 46% cut to its science programs, which are responsible for developing spacecraft, sending them into outer space to observe and analyzing the data they send back.
The proposal would cancel 53 science missions and reduce funding for others, according to the Planetary Society analysis. The effort to pare down NASA Science comes amid the Trump administration\u2019s broader effort<\/a> to cut scientific research<\/a> across federal agencies.
The plan swiftly drew bipartisan criticism from members of Congress, who rejected the administration\u2019s similar 2026 proposal in January. Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, indicated <\/u>last week<\/u><\/a> that he would work to fund NASA similarly for 2027, saying it would be \u201ca mistake\u201d not to fund science missions.
Science & Medicine<\/a>
After four rounds of layoffs in two years that cut a quarter of its employees, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory now faces a daunting task: reclaiming its place at the vanguard of exploration and innovation.
Moran plans to hold a hearing with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman before the end of April to review the budget request, a spokesperson for his office said. The president\u2019s budget request is an ask to Congress, which ultimately holds the power to allocate funding.
But until Congress creates its own budget, NASA will use the plan as its road map, which could slow grants and contracts. The proposal \u201cstill creates enormous chaos and uncertainty in the meantime for critical missions, the scientific workforce, and long-term research planning,\u201d said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), whose district includes JPL.
A NASA spokesperson declined to comment Friday. In the budget request, Isaacman wrote that NASA was \u201cpursuing a focused and right-sized portfolio\u201d for its space science missions in order to align with Trump\u2019s federal cost-cutting goals.
The budget \u201creinforces U.S. leadership in space science through groundbreaking missions, completed research, and next-generation observatories,\u201d Isaacman wrote.
At JPL \u2014 which has for decades led innovation in space science and technology from its La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge campus \u2014 questions had already swirled about the lab\u2019s role in the future of NASA work.
Multiple rounds of layoffs<\/u><\/a> over the last two years, the defunding<\/u><\/a> of its embattled Mars Sample Return mission<\/u><\/a> and a shift by the Trump administration toward lunar exploration and away from the type of scientific work that JPL executes had pushed the lab into a challenging stretch.
It has had a steady stream of employee departures in recent months, and those left have been scrambling to court outside funding from private investors, sell JPL technology to companies and increase productivity in hopes of keeping the lab afloat, according to two former staffers, who requested anonymity to describe the mood inside the lab.
\u201cIf we\u2019re not doing science, then what are we doing?\u201d asked one former employee, who recently left JPL after more than a decade there.
A spokesperson for the lab declined to comment, referring The Times to the budget proposal.
The NASA programs marked for cancellation or cutbacks support thousands of jobs at JPL and other centers, said Chu, who has led a push for increased funding for NASA Science. After last year\u2019s layoffs, JPL \u201ccannot afford to lose more of this expertise,\u201d she said in a statement.
Among the JPL projects that appear to be slated for cancellation are two involving Venus, Dreier said. One, Veritas, is early in development and would give work to the lab for the next several years, he said.
The project would be the first U.S. mission to Venus in more than 30 years, Dreier said, and aims to make a high-resolution mapping of the planet\u2019s surface and observe its atmosphere.
The Perseverance rover, which is on Mars collecting rock and soil samples, could face spending reductions. The budget request proposes pulling some funding from Perseverance to fund other planetary science missions and reducing \u201cthe pace of operations\u201d for the rover.
Though how the Mars samples<\/a> might get back to Earth is uncertain<\/a>, the rover is still being used to explore the planet and search for evidence of whether it could have ever been habitable to life.
Researchers hope the tubes of Martian rock, soil and sediment can eventually be brought back to Earth for study. The team has about a half a dozen more sample tubes to fill and the rover is in good shape, said Jim Bell, a planetary scientist and Arizona State University professor who leads the camera team on Perseverance, which works daily with JPL.
He said NASA\u2019s spending proposal put forth \u201cno plan\u201d for the future of the agency\u2019s work.
\u201cAre people just supposed to walk away from their consoles,\u201d Bell asked, \u201cand let these orbiters around other planets or rovers on other worlds \u2014 just let them die?\u201d
California<\/a>
One-fifth of the NASA facility\u2019s staff was forced to evacuate, director Laurie Leshin said.
The NASA document did not clearly show which programs were targeted for cuts and did not list which projects were targeted for cancellation. The Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society each analyzed the proposal and found that dozens of projects appeared to be canceled without being named in the document.
Across NASA, other projects slated for cancellation according to the Planetary Society\u2019s analysis include New Horizons, a spacecraft exploring the outer edge of the solar system; the Atmosphere Observing System, a planned project to collect weather, air quality and climate data; and Juno, a spacecraft studying Jupiter.
The administration\u2019s plan also doesn\u2019t prioritize new scientific projects, Bell said, which further jeopardizes long-term job stability and space discovery at centers like JPL.
\u201cWe\u2019re going through this long stretch now with very few opportunities to build these spacecrafts,\u201d Bell said. \u201cAll of the NASA centers are suffering from the lack of opportunities.\u201d
Last year, the Trump administration proposed to slash NASA\u2019s 2026 funding by nearly half. Instead, Congress approved<\/u><\/a> funding in January that provided $24.4 billion for the agency \u2014 a cut of about 29% rather than the proposed 46%. The 2027 budget request asks for $18.8 billion.
Congress kept funding for science missions nearly steady, allocating $7.25 billion<\/u><\/a> for science missions, about a 1% decrease from 2025. The administration had proposed cutting the science investment down to $3.91 billion. This time, the budget requests $3.89 billion.
Under the Trump administration, NASA has put an emphasis<\/a> on moon exploration, including this month\u2019s successful Artemis II mission. Isaacman, who defended the proposed cuts on CNN<\/u><\/a> last week, touted the agency\u2019s lunar plans, including a project to build a base on the moon<\/u><\/a>.
The agency has indicated commitment to some existing science missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope, the to-be-launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Dragonfly spacecraft set to launch for Saturn\u2019s moon in 2028, and other projects.
\u201cNASA doesn\u2019t have a topline problem, we just need to focus on executing and delivering world-changing outcomes,\u201d Isaacman said on CNN.
Scientists have urged the government not to choose between funding science and exploration but to keep up investment in both.
\u201cIt\u2019s ultimately kind of confusing, especially on the heels of the Artemis II mission,\u201d said Roohi Dalal, deputy director for public policy at the American Astronomical Society. \u201cThe scientific community \u2026 is providing critical services to ensure that the astronauts are able to carry out their mission safely, and yet at the same time, they\u2019re facing this significant cut.\u201d
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Justine McDaniel is a Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, covering politics, policy and the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing battles with California. She previously covered national news and politics at the Washington Post. Her previous reporting on transportation, water contamination and other topics at the Philadelphia Inquirer was recognized with several awards. She was a 2014 reporting fellow for News21, part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education. She grew up in the North Bay.
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