NASA

Over at KSC NASA's SLS ML 2 tower is getting closer to completion at teams stacked the ninth module, with only one module remaining as they continue to prepare to support future Artemis flights with the currently planned SLS block 1B entry into service starting from Artemis V.

New details of the Trump administration's plans for NASA, released Friday, revealed the White House's desire to end the development of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket engine that could have shown a new way of exploring the Solar System.

Foremost among these cuts, the White House proposes to end NASA's participation in the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) project. NASA said this proposal "reflects the decision by our partner to cancel" the DRACO mission, which would have demonstrated a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space for the first time.

Less than two years ago, NASA and DARPA announced plans to move forward with the roughly $500 million DRACO project, targeting a launch into Earth orbit aboard a traditional chemical rocket in 2027. "With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever, a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars," former NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at the time.

The DRACO mission would have consisted of several elements, including a nuclear reactor to rapidly heat up super-cold liquid hydrogen fuel stored in an insulated tank onboard the spacecraft. Temperatures inside the engine would reach nearly 5,000° Fahrenheit, boiling the hydrogen and driving the resulting gas through a nozzle, generating thrust. From the outside, the spacecraft's design looks a lot like the upper stage of a traditional rocket. However, theoretically, a nuclear thermal rocket engine like DRACO's would offer twice the efficiency of the highest-performing conventional rocket engines. That translates to significantly less fuel that a mission to Mars would have to carry across the Solar System.

…your guess is as good as mine this time folks. 😵‍💫

Dreier said that The Planetary Society has seen a strong response to the proposed cuts in the skinny budget and expects the detailed budget to amplify those concerns.

“There’s definitely a lot of significant concern about what this does to the workforce,” he said.

That budget will go to Congress, where even Republican members are expected to push back against the cuts. Dreier said he has heard from even Republican offices on Capitol Hill that the budget is “dead on arrival.”

“No one is eager to cut NASA science. No one is out there openly defending and saying that this is a great idea,” he said.

NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, has released its first open-source software, a peer review tool to facilitate more efficient and collaborative creation of systems applications, such as those used in its frontline government and commercial propulsion test work.

NASA has canceled plans to find a commercial partner to launch a robotic lunar rover and will instead pursue “alternative approaches” to fly the mission.

NASA is considering scaling back its activities on the International Space Station, according to multiple sources. The changes, which are being considered primarily due to shortfalls in the space station budget, include:

• Reducing the size of the crew complement of Crew Dragon missions from four to three, starting with Crew-12 in February 2026
• Extending the duration of space station missions from six to eight months
• Canceling all upgrades to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer science instrument attached to the station

The cuts are by no means a certainty. There was some confusion on Wednesday because, although the cuts appear to align with the Trump administration's goals, they were not being considered at the request of Trump space officials or in response to the budget release. Rather, they were made at the programmatic level.

None of these decisions are final, and may reflect the fact that NASA at present is operating under an acting administrator. The decision to fly fewer than a full complement of astronauts is not consistent, for example, with the goals of the Trump White House nominee to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman.