The U.S. is killing the chances of finding extraterrestrial life, NASA scientists announced this year, they used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect potential signs of alien life in the glow of a distant planet. Though controversial, the discovery marks a watershed moment in humanity’s quest for extraterrestrial life. It shows that in the future humans will be able to build tools powerful enough to explore the distant stars and monitor evidence for the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. However, in the context of the US government’s drastic cuts to NASA funding, this vision could be dashed.
“Extinction event.”
Given the telescope technology available to American astronomers, if the current rate of progress continues, definitive evidence may be gathered within the next few decades, to answer the most profound question of all, the question of human existence: is there life beyond the Earth. However, NASA, the agency charged with answering that question, is facing a funding and personnel crisis. The 2026 budget proposed by the US government would cut NASA funding by nearly a quarter. That means NASA’s budget, adjusted for inflation, will be about the same as it was in 1961(before President Kennedy called for putting a man on the Moon) , in what the American planetary society calls an“Extinction event.”.
The current NASA is charged with maintaining the International Space Station, searching for asteroids that could destroy the earth, and using Earth observation satellite to help farmers monitor soil conditions. The U. S. budget also calls for a big push to land humans on the Moon and Mars. It is hard to see how NASA can safely and accurately fulfill its current responsibilities, let alone develop advanced and expensive scientific instruments to advance the search for extraterrestrial life, with such reduced funding.
‘Liveable World Observatory’ may end soon
Nearly all of NASA’s departments are facing deep cuts, with the science mission board leading the way-cut by nearly 50% , posing a serious threat to the future search for great discoveries, including extraterrestrial life. Scientists at the Science Mission Council built the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope and a series of other remarkable instruments to photograph galactic collisions 300 million light-years away, capturing the death throes of stars like the sun and recording nebulae that give birth to new generations of stars and planets.
Worst of all, the development budget for one of America’s most ambitious projects ever, the Livable World Observatory, a space telescope, was cut by 80% in a government proposal, from $17M in 2024 to just $3M in 2026. In 2023, scientists and engineers at the Science Mission Council were tasked with building the“Habitable World Observatory,” dedicated to finding extraterrestrial life on planets light-years from Earth. NASA plans to launch the Livable World Observatory around 2040, roughly the same size as the James Webb Space Telescope and on a similar orbit. But unlike the James Webb Space Telescope, the habitable World Observatory’s advanced detectors can distinguish the light of a planet from the intense light of a distant star, it’s as difficult as monitoring a tiny firefly in the harsh light of San Francisco’s Oracle Park from New York City.
Now, however, many astronomers worry that NASA may never get a chance to build and launch a habitable world observatory, or use it for a range of missions, these missions will maintain the United States’ pre-eminence in space in the future, while remaining a leader in the search for extraterrestrial life. Under the government’s plan, NASA would be forced to abandon 19 ongoing missions, including the unmanned spacecraft Juno and New Horizons. Juno is changing astronomers’ understanding of Jupiter and may help it learn about other systems and earth-like planets, while New Horizons took nearly a decade to reach Pluto, are currently flying into uncharted space at the edge of the Solar System. In addition, budgets have been cut for two missions expected to send humans to Venus.
NASA could lose core technology
In the midst of America’s woes, the loss of space science may be negligible. But American space science has made great contributions to the country’s strength, prosperity, and respect around the world.
If the 2026 budget is passed, one-third of NASA’s high-tech workforce will lose their jobs. In turn, the agency would lose decades of core technological experience: few people knew how to launch an unmanned rover from Earth and send it hundreds of millions of miles through deep space, and landed intact on the surface of another planet. As the cuts take effect, many NASA scientists could be forced to move to other countries, retire early or even be fired. NASA faces further setbacks in the coming decades. By Adam Frank