NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE ADMINISTRATION
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is responsible for increasing
understanding of the universe and our place in it, advancing America’s world-leading
aerospace technology, inspiring the Nation, and opening the space frontier. The Budget
increases cooperation with industry through the use of public-private partnerships, focuses
the Nation’s efforts on deep space exploration rather than Earth-centric research, and
develops technologies that would help achieve U.S. space goals and benefit the economy.
The President’s 2018 Budget requests $19.1 billion for NASA, a 0.8 percent decrease from the
2017 annualized CR level, with targeted increases consistent with the President’s priorities.
The President’s 2018 Budget:
• Supports and expands public-private partnerships as the foundation of future U.S. civilian space
efforts. The Budget creates new opportunities for collaboration with industry on space station
operations, supports public-private partnerships for deep-space habitation and exploration
systems, funds data buys from companies operating small satellite constellations, and supports
work with industry to develop and commercialize new space technologies.
• Paves the way for eventual over-land commercial supersonic flights and safer, more efficient
air travel with a strong program of aeronautics research. The Budget provides $624 million for
aeronautics research and development.
• Reinvigorates robotic exploration of the Solar System by providing $1.9 billion for the Planetary
Science program, including funding for a mission to repeatedly fly by Jupiter’s icy ocean moon
Europa and a Mars rover that would launch in 2020. To preserve the balance of NASA’s science
portfolio and maintain flexibility to conduct missions that were determined to be more important
by the science community, the Budget provides no funding for a multi-billion-dollar mission to
land on Europa. The Budget also supports initiatives that use smaller, less expensive satellites
to advance science in a cost-effective manner.
• Provides $3.7 billion for continued development of the Orion crew vehicle, Space Launch
System, and associated ground system, to send American astronauts on deep-space missions. To
accommodate increasing development costs, the Budget cancels the multi-billion-dollar Asteroid
Redirect Mission. NASA will investigate approaches for reducing the costs of exploration
missions to enable a more expansive exploration program.
• Provides $1.8 billion for a focused, balanced Earth science portfolio that supports the priorities
of the science and applications communities, a savings of $102 million from the 2017 annualized
CR level. The Budget terminates four Earth science missions (PACE, OCO-3, DSCOVR
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Earth-viewing instruments, and CLARREO Pathfinder) and reduces funding for Earth science
research grants.
• Eliminates the $115 million Office of Education, resulting in a more focused education effort
through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Office of Education has experienced significant
challenges in implementing a NASA-wide education strategy and is performing functions that
are duplicative of other parts of the agency.
• Restructures a duplicative robotic satellite refueling demonstration mission to reduce its cost
and better position it to support a nascent commercial satellite servicing industry, resulting in a
savings of $88 million from the 2017 annualized CR level.
• Strengthens NASA’s cybersecurity capabilities, safeguarding critical systems and data.
