- Nearly 300 NASA employees and scientists sign letter protesting President Trump's budget cuts
- Document argues cuts will diminish safety protocols, end critical projects
- Appointee's team says Trump 'will never compromise' on NASA's safety
Nearly 300 scientists, including current and former NASA employees and a score of Nobel prize winners, signed a letter published Monday decrying proposed budget cuts directed by President Donald Trump and arguing the funding losses will undermine safety protocols and critical programs at the agency.
A document titled “The Voyager Declaration” in honor of astronauts who have lost their lives in past spaceflight incidents, was addressed to acting NASA director Sean Duffy, who was appointed by Trump last month to assume interim duties at NASA while also continuing to serve on the president’s cabinet as the U.S. secretary of Transportation.
The letter claims policy changes enacted since Trump took office ”have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission" and were carried out without appropriate congressional authorization.
“Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully,” the letter reads. “Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA’s workforce.
“We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement and efficient use of public resources. These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law. The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire."
Of the letter’s 287 signatories at the time of publication, 156 chose to remain anonymous “due to the culture of fear of retaliation cultivated by this administration”, according to the letter.
Big NASA cuts in new budget
NASA employs some 15,000 across the multi-faceted agency, which oversees over a dozen centers and facilities including Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Houston-based Johnson Space Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
According to a budget proposal released in late May by the Trump administration, NASA is allocated $18.8 billion in fiscal year 2026, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025 through Sept. 30, 2026.
Per a report from Space.com, this would be the biggest single-year cut to NASA in history, and the 2026 funding would be the agency’s lowest since 1961 when adjusted for inflation, according to The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration advocacy organization.
NASA science funding would be cut by 47% next year, to $3.9 billion — the same number provided by the skinny budget.
The budget reductions would mean cancellation of a number of high-profile projects as well as significant staff cuts.
“In total, this budget aims to cancel 41 science projects — fully a third of NASA’s science portfolio,” The Planetary Society said in a statement about the budget documents. “These are unique projects that would require billions of new spending to replace.”
Trump appointee’s team responds
In a statement, current NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens responded to the Voyager Declaration.
“NASA will never compromise on safety. Any reduction — including our current voluntary reduction — will be designed to protect safety-critical roles,” Stevens said, per CNN.
“Despite the claims posted on a website that advances radical, discriminatory DEI principles, the reality is that President Trump has proposed billions of dollars for NASA science, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to communicating our scientific achievements,” Stevens added. “To ensure NASA delivers for the American people, we are continually evaluating mission lifecycles, not on sustaining outdated or lower-priority missions.”
Monday’s Voyager Declaration letter was coordinated by Stand Up For Science, a 501 (c)(4) non-profit organization formed in February 2025 with the stated mission of ending censorship and political interference in science; securing and expanding scientific funding and; defending and supporting programs that offer equal opportunity for all people to become scientists, participate in scientific research and be the focus of evidence-based scientific inquiry.
Stand Up For Science has coordinated similar letters in support of staff concerns at the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency.