NASA’s science missions, which are crucial for space exploration and scientific understanding, are facing significant budget cuts proposed by the White House for fiscal year 2026. These reductions threaten both ongoing projects and future research, including efforts at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz).
According to UC Santa Cruz’s Office of Research annual report, NASA ranked among the top ten sources of external research funding in 2024. Most of this support goes to the Science Division, enabling work in astronomy, astrophysics, Earth sciences, ocean sciences, and physics.
In response to these proposed cuts, researchers and advocates across the country participated in a Day of Action to Save NASA Science on October 5 and 6, 2025. The campaign aims to preserve NASA’s Science Mission Directorate budget at $7.3 billion for fiscal year 2026. UC Santa Cruz has expressed its support for this initiative.
Professor Natalie Batalha from UC Santa Cruz is a leading example of the university’s involvement with NASA. She previously served as scientific lead for NASA’s Kepler mission, which discovered more than 2,700 exoplanets. In 2011, Batalha led the team that confirmed the first rocky planet outside our solar system. Her ongoing research focuses on planetary habitability and the search for life beyond Earth.
Batalha works with an interdisciplinary group from several universities and NASA Ames Research Center studying planets orbiting other stars using funding from NASA’s Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR).
“NASA serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration across the globe and embodies the best qualities in human beings. Its science missions deliver profound new discoveries that change our thinking and ultimately change who we are as a species,” Batalha said.
She also commented on NASA’s influence: “to be part of the generation that puts an end to our cosmic loneliness,” she said. “I can’t imagine a world without NASA playing a leading role in that quest.”
UC Santa Cruz has contributed significantly to space science through research on gravitational waves, stellar structure, galaxy formation events, and exoplanet habitability. The Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics includes scientists recognized internationally for their contributions to telescope design and space technology innovation. Notably, UC Santa Cruz scientists played a key role in correcting Hubble Space Telescope’s optics.
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering have collaborated with NASA to develop models predicting solar activity such as flares and coronal mass ejections—phenomena capable of disrupting terrestrial power grids and telecommunications.
NASA-funded programs provide training opportunities for students alongside prominent scientists while driving technological advances that impact society broadly—including improvements in GPS technology, computing systems, and optics.
Proposed federal budget cuts could slow or halt this progress. UC Santa Cruz urges lawmakers to maintain funding levels for NASA science programs so that research at universities like theirs—and its benefits—can continue into the future.
“Now is the time to ensure that this work continues. By protecting NASA’s science funding, we protect not just research at UC Santa Cruz, but the future of discovery itself,” states the university release.
