NASA’s FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Prioritizes Deep Space Exploration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) $18.8B FY 2026 discretionary budget reflects a $5.4B (-24.2%) decrease over FY 2025 levels prioritizing human spaceflight and exploration.

Priorities for the next fiscal year target cost efficiencies by streamlining the NASA organization, reassessing program alignment with new mission priorities and enhancing partnerships with commercial entities. According to the Planetary Society, this is not only the smallest NASA Budget since 1961 (adjusted for inflation), but also the largest budget reduction based on agency budget requests from 1960 to 2026. (The society’s relative change is measured by comparing the White House budget request for NASA to the prior years' congressionally appropriated amount.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FY 2026 budget reduces the Science and Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) budget by half and cancels 41 missions and projects including the billion-dollar Mars Sample Return program and decreases the International Space Stating funding by $350M. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) and the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) program, the Vertical Lift Portfolio and LandSat Next Mission are rescoped and restructured. Additionally, the budget transfers the Fission Surface Power and Commercial Lunar Payload Services programs to the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) and places five of the agency’s 12 wind tunnels in stand-by mode to reduce maintenance and operation costs.

The chart below provides the budget breakout for each mission directorate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Major FY 2026 NASA Investments:

• Deep Space Exploration: prioritizes funding on human exploration missions including $4.8B for the Moon to Mars (M2M) Transportation System, $2.8B for the M2M Lunar Systems Development and $602M
• Space Operation: Provides $1.2B for Space Transportation; $920M for ongoing International Space Station support, $646M for Space and Flight Support and $272M for Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development.
• Science: Focuses on programs aligned with and relevant to planned missions ensuring critical data continuity including $1.9B for Planetary Sciences such as the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program and Near-Earth Objects Surveyor mission. Allots $1B for Earth Sciences with the highest amount ever proposed ($55M) for the Space Weather Program. Invests $523M in Astrophysics including $225M for the Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes and $125M for the Heliophysics Explorer Program, including development of the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) program. The budget also invests in opening the LaRC Flight Dynamics Research Facility.
• Aeronautics: Invests in bolstering U.S. global aviation competitiveness and transforming future air travel through Revolutionizing Aerospace Engineering Methods, Pioneering High-Speed Flight (i.e., NASA’s X-59 program), Automating Airspace and Safety Management Capabilities and Transforming Aviation Propulsion This includes $167M for Integrated Aviation Systems Programs and $133M for Advanced Air Vehicles.
• Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (OSTEM): Eliminates this office and STEM programs. (-$143M)
• Safety, Security and Mission Services (SSMS): Prioritizes on Missions Services and Capabilities and Engineering and Safety Operations and streamlines SSMS by eliminating and consolidating functions, staff reductions and assessing innovative solutions to automate routine tasks (i.e., artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies). Requests $525M for Mission Enabling services to establish an enterprise management approach to NASA’s business operations and mission support activities.
• Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration: Focuses on modernizing, rightsizing, upgrading and repairing NASA infrastructure including $110M for facility construction and $30M for environmental compliance and restoration.
• Space Technology: ($569M, -96%) Restructures the SBIR/STTR (-$73M) program to Domain Capabilities Structure versus Technology Readiness Levels. NASA estimates issuing 360 new small business awards, grants and contracts under this program. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key FY 2026 Information Technology (IT) Priorities:

NASA’s $1.8M request for IT and Cybersecurity programs requests represents 2.7% of the total discretionary request. This is a $356M, or 16.7% reduction from the FY 2025 enacted level. NASA funds agency-wide IT products and services SSMS. However, other directorate missions and programs include embedded IT products and services. Major FY 2026 IT funding includes:

• Funds agency-wide Information Technology Program at $481M (-23.5% below FY 2025 level) to modernize IT capabilities and provide strategic cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI) risk management.
• Requests for Space communications and navigation to focus on maintaining communication, tracking and navigation networks. (embedded within Space Operations).
• Allocates $137M for the Lunar Discovery and Exploration missions and research to provide lunar datasets for scientific research and exploration. (embedded within the Science budget)
• Provides $80M to accelerate development of space computers, Mars surface communications options, Mars-focused technology development prizes, and advanced surface power generation concepts. (embedded within Exploration)
• Allots $80M to develop communications relay capabilities around MARS to provide more robust communication links between Earth and MARS. (embedded within Exploration)
• Invests $59M in Communications Services Program to demonstrate the feasibility of commercially provided satellite communications services for future missions. (embedded within Space Operations)
• Provides the highest request in history ($55M) for the Space Weather Program to support applied research and applications, advanced modeling capabilities for forecasting and improving understanding of orbital debris. (embedded within Science)
• Continues the Deep Space Network Aperture Enhancement Project Beam Waveguide antennae projects at the Goldstone Deep Space Communication Complexes with a $10M funding request. (embedded within Construction & Environmental & Restoration

For more information, be sure to register for Deniece Peterson's  Breaking Down the FY 2026 Federal Budget Request webinar on July 10, 2025, review Deltek's FY 2026 President’s Budget Request – GovWin FMA’s First Take and continue monitoring the Federal Market Analysis team for ongoing FY 2026 federal budget analysis blogs.