White House budget seeks to end SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway programs
arstechnica.comI think if this budget is allowed to stand (and why wouldn’t it? the opposition on both sides is toothless) it makes it pretty likely the Chinese will achieve a manned lunar mission before the Americans achieve another one.
The opposition(s) are generally toothless, but the SLS has lasted this long for a reason. It's a make-work program for American aerospace firms, and those are really popular. Nobody particularly wants Boeing to go under, even if that means massive subsidies.
Plus, moon landings are popular.
Congress does have the power on this one. This is an appropriations request. Congress routinely declares appropriations requests dead-on-arrival, and rewrites them to whatever it wants. It's easy for them to put things back.
The President can, of course, veto it, but only as a whole. Which leads to the nearly-annual ritual of government shutdowns, which rarely go well for the party in power.
So, I don't know what will happen here. Congress may just roll over, but that's gonna go badly in 2026.
Boeing, Lockheed, NG and friends do not have the political leverage they did in 2011. Nor does this administration seem to care much about jobs numbers or econometrics.
I hope you’re right re: 2026.