1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

A 47% cut to NASA's Science Mission Directorate would be catastrophic for space exploration and America's global leadership in space science. Canceling vital missions like Mars Sample Return and DAVINCI, along with drastically reducing astrophysics, planetary science, and Earth science programs, risks creating a generational gap in scientific discovery and technological innovation. This short-sighted budgetary approach would forfeit decades of effort, squander billions in prior investments, and undermine international partnerships central to future exploration. The reverberating consequences would ripple across academia and industry, imperiling high-skilled jobs and undercutting America's economic competitiveness in emerging space sectors. Retreating from robust space science funding cedes the frontier of exploration to ambitious rivals like China, surrendering American preeminence. Space science elevates humanity's understanding, inspires future generations, and drives technological breakthroughs benefiting life on Earth. This draconian budget proposal betrays those core principles in a severe dereliction of vision and leadership. I urge reconsideration of these calamitous cuts to uphold America's standing as a global agenda-setter in pioneering space endeavors and fundamental scientific inquiry.