Trump's 2020 NASA Budget Would Cancel Space Telescope, Earth Science Missions (Again)

By Hanneke Weitering 5 hours ago

The Trump administration's federal budget request for 2020 proposes the cancellation of three NASA science missions: the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and two Earth science missions.

This isn't the first time the Trump administration has tried to nix WFIRST, a $3.2 billion flagship-class astrophysics mission that has already had to grapple with budget cuts. In its fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, the Trump administration sought to end that mission along with five other Earth science missions — but the Senate voted to give WFIRST the funding it needed to stay on track for a launch in 2025.

According to NASA's summary of the budget request, the Trump administration is proposing "to terminate the WFIRST mission and instead focus on completing the delayed James Webb Space Telescope," another flagship-class project that is over budget and behind schedule.

Now the administration seeks to cut funding for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission and the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder instrument that NASA planned to send to the International Space Station.

More:
https://www.space.com/trump-nasa-2020-budget-cancels-wfirst-earth-missions.html