NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said, that the agency is going to cut back on climate science and focus on space missions - lunar exploration, Mars and orbital programs after decommissioning the ISS.
In his opinion, the main goal of NASA is space expansion, rather than monitoring Earth's climate. Duffy noted, that weather and climate research can be taken over by other agencies, eg NOAA, while NASA is unique in its ability to support manned missions.
The statement was made against the background of the budget proposed by US President Donald Trump 2026 year, which involves reducing the funding of NASA's scientific programs by 47% and reducing the Earth Science major by more than half. This puts dozens of missions at risk, including global ocean level monitoring programs, carbon cycle and atmospheric dynamics.
Earlier, despite political pressure, NASA still managed to implement important climate projects - from the installation of the OCO-3 instrument on the ISS to the launch of the Sentinel-6 and Landsat satellites 9, which continue to transmit data. However, new initiatives risk being frozen.
The final decision will depend on the US Congress, which allocates the agency's budget. NASA emphasized, that no mission has been officially canceled yet, but employees have already received a "risk warning", causing alarm within the agency.
Source: https://lookintothe.space