Amid cuts, Trump's proposed NASA budget would lay waste to new Artemis launch tower

Work for now continues daily at Kennedy Space Center on a new mobile launch tower that has already cost more than $1 billion. But the Artemis moon mission it is intended to serve may never happen if President Donald Trump’s plans for NASA come to fruition.

The mobile launcher 2 has been rising steadily at a construction site just north of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, where it stands now at 320 feet tall on its way to a target of 390 feet.

It’s designed to support a larger version of the Space Launch System rocket called the SLS Block 1B beginning with the Artemis IV mission. But Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 has spiked future use of the SLS rocket after Artemis III, a move that comes amid $6 billion in cuts to the agency’s overall spending plan.

An existing mobile launcher, ML-1, was used on the uncrewed Artemis I test flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft in 2022, and is in place within the VAB for the Artemis II mission, a crewed flight that will go around but not land on the moon. It is set to fly in early 2026.

ML-1 would be used for a final time for the Artemis III mission, which aims to return humans to the surface of the moon as early as summer 2027.

But after that, Trump wants to find different solutions to send crew and cargo to the moon and onto Mars.

That would leave ML-2 with no purpose, and its fate could be similar to its predecessor, which sat unused at KSC for years after the end of the Constellation program. Eventually, though, the launcher was repurposed for use on the first three Artemis missions.

“NASA will close out Mobile Launcher-2 development, as ML-2 will not be needed to support SLS due to the orderly shutdown of the SLS Block 1B upgrade,” reads the budget proposal. “NASA proposes to use previously appropriated unobligated balances to support the termination of these activities, including but not limited to, ongoing administration, oversight, and monitoring.”

That would include money that would be paid out to lead contractor Bechtel National Inc., which was initially awarded a $383 million contract in 2019 with a delivery date of 2023. NASA’s Office of the Inspector General released an audit in August 2024 that said the costs had already nearly tripled to more than $1 billion with the delivery date pushed to no later than November 2026.

The budget also calls for an end to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team that supports Artemis launches.

NASA, which employs for now around 18,000, has not said how many people fall under EGS, but its budgets in 2024 and 2025 neared $884 million. Trump’s proposed budget would drop that to $658 million for 2026, $700 million in 2027, $500 million in 2028, and then nothing beyond that.

“NASA will utilize a commercial partnership through a competitive contract to transport crew for future Artemis missions,” the budget proposal states.

The move to kill the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft by Trump comes amid criticism of the program’s continued delays and ballooning costs.

The OIG in a 2023 audit warned that by the time Artemis III finally flies, NASA will have spent more than $93 billion across its various facets including SLS, Orion and Exploration Ground Systems.

Instead, Trump’s goal is to rely on commercial launch providers such as SpaceX’s in-development Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn for future moon and Mars missions.

“New transportation services contracts will permit more frequent missions to the moon while at the same time freeing up resources to invest in the infrastructure necessary to conduct longer stays on the lunar surface than ever before,” reads a note within the budget proposal from interim NASA Administrator Janet Petro.

Overall, Trump’s proposed NASA budget would drop dramatically from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion, proposing to kill off not only future SLS launches, but gutting much of the agency’s science portfolio.

“This budget is a retreat, a narrowing of ambition,” reads a critical statement from nonprofit group The Planetary Society. “This request represents the smallest NASA budget since FY 1961 — a level enacted before the first American had launched into space.”

Calling it an “extinction-level event” for NASA’s science efforts, the group noted the budget would kill 41 science projects, or 1/3 of NASA’s science portfolio.

But the agency contends it’s focusing on moon and Mars missions instead.

“With a leaner budget across all of government, we are all taking a closer look at how we work, where we invest, and how we adjust our methods to accomplish our mission,” the proposal reads. “At NASA, that means placing a renewed emphasis on human spaceflight – increasing investments in a sustainable plan to return to the Moon for long-term human exploration and accelerating efforts to send American astronauts to Mars.”

A shift from a nationally sponsored rocket program to reliance on commercial partners for launch doesn’t necessarily mean an economic downturn for the Space Coast, according to the Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development entity.

“Florida’s strategic investments over the years have paid off in building a diverse and robust ecosystem that’s well-positioned to fuel the growth of the aerospace sector — regardless of how national priorities evolve,” said Space Florida’s Director of Public Relations Alayna Curry.

Part of that is a massive $1.8 billion infrastructure project by SpaceX to support two launch sites of Starship once it becomes operational.

Despite the uncertain future, Bechtel continues to work on the job given.

“We’re constantly looking at potential (fiscal) challenges based on priorities and other things that are going on within NASA,” said Michael Costas, general manager of Defense and Space Business with Bechtel, in November just after the election. “They’re having to work through whatever challenges they’re facing. But of course — new administration — there’s a lot of folks looking at efficiencies.”

Congress is the ultimate decider on what gets funded for NASA, though, and without a viable replacement for SLS in place yet, it may be that ML-2 still has a future.

NASA had continued to tout its progress on regular updates through the first several months of the year. The latest addition was added in May with only two more to come. Bechtel’s goal was to hand over to NASA the completed tower no later than November 2026, which would give NASA enough time to prep it for what was supposed to be an Artemis IV flight by September 2028.

NASA included the previous added sections in a list of achievement in Trump’s first 100 days in office, stating “the agency’s next-generation mobile launcher continues to take shape, with the sixth of 10 massive modules being installed. This structure will carry future Artemis rockets to the launch pad.”

That was before the proposed budget came out, though.

“We must continue to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” reads the budget proposal. “That means making strategic decisions — including scaling back or discontinuing ineffective efforts not aligned with our moon and Mars exploration priorities.”

The warnings from The Planetary Society, which have been echoed by many naysayers to Trump’s new direction, say the agency is choosing a ruinous path.

“President Trump has stated he is ‘committed to ensuring that America continues to lead the way in fueling the pursuit of space discovery and exploration’,” the Society’s statement reads. “This budget does the exact opposite: laying waste to the nation’s ability to lead in scientific discovery, destroying the economic powerhouse that is NASA, and abandoning allies around the globe.”

---------------