NASA’s science missions, which are central to advancing space exploration and scientific knowledge, may be at risk due to proposed budget reductions by the White House for fiscal year 2026. These cuts could impact ongoing missions, future exploration efforts, and research funding at institutions such as the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz).
UC Santa Cruz relies significantly on NASA for external research funding. According to the university’s Office of Research annual report, NASA ranked among the top ten sources of such funding in 2024. Most of this support is directed toward research and teaching within the Science Division, covering fields like astronomy, astrophysics, Earth and planetary 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 maintain NASA’s Science Mission Directorate budget at $7.3 billion for fiscal year 2026 and prevent premature cancellation of current science missions and programs. UC Santa Cruz has expressed its support for this initiative.
Professor Natalie Batalha, a planetary astronomer at UC Santa Cruz who previously served as scientific lead for NASA’s Kepler mission, highlighted the university’s contributions to space science. The Kepler mission led to the discovery of over 2,700 exoplanets, including many rocky worlds that could potentially support life. Batalha led the team that confirmed the first rocky planet outside our solar system in 2011 and continues her research into planetary habitability.
Batalha is part of an interdisciplinary team from UC Santa Cruz, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Kansas, and NASA Ames Research Center studying planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way. This work is funded by 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 added: “to be part of the generation that puts an end to our cosmic loneliness… I can’t imagine a world without NASA playing a leading role in that quest.”
UC Santa Cruz is known internationally for contributions that have advanced understanding in areas such as gravitational waves, stellar structure, galactic phenomena, and exoplanet habitability. The Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics has been involved in significant projects like correcting optics on the Hubble Space Telescope—a project funded by NASA—and developing powerful telescopes and technologies.
Researchers from UC Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering have also worked with NASA on modeling solar activity. Their work helps predict events such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections that can disrupt power grids or telecommunications.
NASA-funded missions provide students with training opportunities alongside experienced scientists while driving technological advances with broad societal applications—including GPS technology and innovations in computing and optics.
UC Santa Cruz emphasizes that reductions in federal science funding could slow progress not only at their institution but also across U.S. science more broadly.
“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,” according to statements from university representatives.
The university urges lawmakers to reject proposed cuts to preserve continued advancements in space science and related benefits for society.
