00:00We're on Capitol Hill, 130 people here in the U.S. reminding members of Congress and the Senate that this
00:08there's the modern word is a disconnect between what people expected and what has the president's budget request in the
00:18states we call the PBR is wants to cut the NASA budget 20 percent and cut NASA science, as you
00:27pointed out, almost 50 percent, 48 percent.
00:29And the the budget as presented is full of typos. It refers to the fiscal year 2026, which would be
00:38last year. It's how to say a lazy document. And why it's created that way is a little bit of
00:46a mystery. But it is an irony and a bit of a slap in the face. These astronauts just accomplished
00:55this remarkable thing. And now we want to cut the budget.
00:58One particular aspect of the budget that you are focusing on is the science mission directorate. I think as of
01:03right now, it's about 30 percent or so of NASA's total budget.
01:08I want to know if you can articulate exactly what that does. And with regards to the types of technologies
01:14and research that comes out of this, is this just done for our own ego or are there practical applications
01:20of that science for everyday people?
01:22Well, oh, so if you ask people in the U.S., ask people around the world, what does NASA do?
01:30People say NASA does science, does the scientific exploration of space.
01:35And as far as what are going to be the practical applications, the answer is absolutely without question.
01:42We don't know. That's the whole idea. One of the founders of the planetary side, Bruce Murray, who was the
01:48head of the jet propulsion lab in the heyday of Voyager missions and the Viking missions, the first landers on
01:55Mars.
01:55He pointed out that people asked him, what are you going to what are you going to find when you
02:01explore these other worlds?
02:03So we don't know what we're going to find. That's why we're exploring.
02:06So we remind everybody that China National Space Administration is going wild, doing extraordinary things in space.
02:16A lot of smart people working very hard in China. They're going to put people on the moon in 2030.
02:22They are sending missions to the outer planets. They're planning a mission beyond the heliopause where the particles streaming off
02:31the sun are run out of momentum.
02:34And so by not competing, you'll be the United States would be conceding the lead to other space agencies, which
02:45I don't think is what anybody wants.
02:46And so we're talking about the White House's fiscal year 2027 budget request, which would take NASA funding from seven
02:53point two five billion dollars to three point nine billion dollars to go from seven point two five to three
02:59point nine.
02:59What is cut if you do see that scale of a reduction?
03:04So if you're asking me and I got the impression you were 53 missions, 53 space missions, these are spacecraft
03:13and the ground support systems and the staff that run the spacecraft and collect the data and process it.
03:21Fifty three missions would be cut for a cost to U.S.
03:27Taxpayers, a waste, a throwing away of about 13 billion dollars, 13 billion dollars squandered, just tossed in the budget
03:39trash can with these proposed budgets.
03:42And that's why Congress members of Congress and the Senate from every state just shrugged their shoulders, shake their heads.
03:50We're not going to allow this. We're going to push back. NASA has its reach into every congressional district in
03:58the U.S.
03:58Every taxpayer has an interest in NASA and every taxpayer has an interest in NASA science because that's where the
04:07discoveries are made.
04:08And I just remind everybody, we are on the verge of making discoveries here in the solar system that will
04:16change the course of human history.
04:18It's very reasonable that what we have found in these rocks on Mars are evidence of ancient life.
04:26We need to bring the rocks back to Earth, to bigger laboratories with big, real time, heavy, huge instruments to
04:32study them.
04:33We have a mission, as you may know, on the way to Europa, the moon of Jupiter with twice as
04:38much ocean water as Earth.
04:39We are on the verge of extraordinary discoveries. And so to be canceling or trying to cancel 53 missions, 53
04:49budget line items right now is right is odd at best.
04:55And we are here to ensure that it doesn't happen.
04:59I am curious, though, Bill, I mean, some of the folks in Congress would argue that the private sector has
05:05picked up the mantle of some of this.
05:06I was watching Blue Origin finally land their reusable rocket relatively successfully.
05:11There are people that look at the progress that SpaceX has made and says that private industry can help carry
05:18the U.S. space program much further than a completely government-led or government-run space program.
05:25What do you make of that?
05:27Absolutely true. But note well the two different things.
05:31Buying trucks is not the same as buying the cargo on the truck.
05:36So the rockets are good. Lowering the cost, especially of getting the low Earth orbit is good.
05:42Lowering the cost of sending payloads on the order of two or three, four tons to the moon is good.
05:48But that's not what NASA science does. NASA science does unique missions with unique one-of-a-kind instruments.
05:57Well, unique one-of-a-kind. Unique instruments that make extraordinary discoveries on other worlds and the space in between.
06:05Two different things.
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