NASA postpones funding cuts to Hubble and Chandra space telescopes

NASA has suspended previously announced plans to cut spending on the Hubble Space Telescope and the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. So now they will wait for the 2025 budget bill before anything is finalized.

Chandra Space Telescope. Source: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan

Space telescopes and budget

The U.S. space agency has postponed plans to cut the budget for the Hubble and Chandra missions until it receives a draft budget bill for 2025. This doesn’t mean that the famous space telescope and magnificent X-ray observatory’s problems are over, but now instead of bad predictions, scientists have “foggy” ones.

The fact that the budget for these missions is planned to be cut by NASA was reported back in the summer. The aerospace administration has already been put in front of the fact that its costs in general will not increase, despite inflation. It had to find someone to sacrifice. And this caused outrage among the scientific community on the verge of panic. 

NASA’s proposal to the Senate called for Hubble’s budget to be cut by about 10%, to $88.9 million. Chandra should suffer much more severely. Spending on it will be reduced by 40%, to 41.1 million dollars.

Both instruments are very old. In their time, they were used to make an incredible number of discoveries. And until today, many scientists continue to find new things in space with the help of these veterans. However, their efficiency is gradually declining and the cost of operation is rising.

Science and politics

Immediately after being made public, the plans triggered a flurry of protest among scientists. After all, while Hubble may well survive such cuts, it could be a verdict for Chandra. Besides the fact that a bunch of scientific institutions could undergo massive layoffs, the ability to keep the telescope running at this level of funding is questionable.

None of this affected NASA’s decision, and in September, it was once again confirmed that there would be funding cuts. However, at the October 23 meeting, the decision was suddenly reconsidered, and no one ever explained why.

In any case, both scientists and NASA don’t have much to depend on right now. Until December 20, a resolution keeping government spending at the 2024 level will be in effect. And what will happen afterwards is very difficult to say, because the presidential and parliamentary elections are approaching, and no one can predict their outcome.

Provided by spacenews.com