00:00NASA just pulled off one of the greatest achievements in American history.
00:03So why is the government trying to defund it?
00:05Here's what's happening.
00:06Four astronauts just completed the first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years.
00:12And the moment they splashed down,
00:13the White House proposed cutting NASA's budget by nearly a quarter,
00:17which is roughly $5.6 billion.
00:20Now, the cuts don't actually touch the moon program itself.
00:23Artemis actually gets a billion dollar boost.
00:25What's getting cut is everything underneath it.
00:28The scientists who study solar radiation, deep space,
00:30and the stuff that keeps astronauts alive on the way there.
00:33Critics call that sawing off the branch you're standing on.
00:36The idea is to hand space exploration off to companies like SpaceX.
00:40And that might sound strange because NASA and SpaceX aren't really rivals.
00:44SpaceX has been NASA's only way to send astronauts to space for years.
00:48But there's a difference.
00:49NASA is funded by taxpayers and answers to the public.
00:52SpaceX answers to its investors.
00:54These cuts signal that the government may be ready to take a step back
00:58and let the private sector take the wheel.
01:00But the budget fight may be beside the point.
01:02Thousands of NASA scientists have already walked out the door in response to doge cuts,
01:06taking decades of know-how with them.
01:08So even if the moon program survives the cuts,
01:11the people who made it possible might not be around for what comes next.
01:14Supporters say private companies can get us further in space
01:17faster and cheaper than the government ever could.
01:20But critics say you can't build a future in space by defunding the scientists who make it possible.
01:25So the big question is, if private companies can...
01:27...
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