He Historic Tijeretazo to NASA On the part of the United States government has a clear victim: Europe. If Congress approves the cuts proposed by the Trump administration, the European Space Agency, one of NASA’s most faithful partners, will remain alone and with invoices payable in the most important projects that it shares with its American homologue.
Context. The budget proposal of the White House for fiscal year 2026 includes a brutal cut for NASA, which would go from 24,800 to 18.8 billion dollars of annual budget, 25% less. The cuts are particularly primed With NASA’s scientific branchbut the United States lunar program and its partners have also placed upside down.
He Artemis programthat Trump himself promoted in his first term, will remain in the hands of the private industry from 2027 with the cancellation of the SLS rocket and the Orion ship. The Lunar Gateway station, in which several international partners participate, has completely discarded.
A slap to ESA. Although It was seen coming For a long time (Boeing herself He warned it to its employees at the beginning of the year), the cancellation of the SLS/ORION system has direct consequences for the European Space Agency. ESA is responsible for the European Service Module (ESM) that provides propulsion, energy and life support to the Orion ship and its crew.
The first ESM was used in the mission without crew Artemis I. Two others will be used in the Artemis II and III missions. But in February 2021, ESA awarded Airbus a contract of 650 million euros for the manufacture of three additional modules (ESM-4, 5 and 6), which will now run out of use.
The varapalo does not end there. Lunar Gateway was not an exclusively American project either. The Lunar Orbital Stationwhose launch was planned for 2027, was NASA designed In collaboration with the space agencies of Japan (Jaxa), Canada (CSA), United Arab Emirates and ESA itself.
Of course, many of its components were in an advanced phase of development or manufacturing. Thales Alenia Space manufactured in Turin (Italy) The primary structure of the halo module, which was already in the United States for its final equipment. In addition, the ESA had in a test phase a model of Lunar I-Hab (A habitat type module developed in collaboration with Jaxa), and in the preliminary design phase the refueling and telecommunications module Lunar View (formerly known as Esprit).
And the astronauts? These multimillionaires European investments, now in the air, They were currency to guarantee the presence of Astronauts of the ESA in the missions to the moon. The architecture of lunar missions will change completely from Artemis III.
Taking into account that Artemis I was a mission without crew, that Artemis II has a Canadian on board as a non-American crewman, and that Artemis III is designed for NASA They step on the moon againIt is not clear at what time we will see Europeans step on the moon.
After certifying for extravehicular activities at the International Space Station, Pablo Álvarez, The Spanish astronaut of the ESAhe planned to start his lunar training to use the future Gateway station.
NASA looks at the private sector. The justification of the White House for this drastic change of course is “to return to the moon before China and put a man on Mars” (the references to place the first woman in Mars were eliminated from the NASA website as part of the measures to erase the initiatives of diversity, equity and inclusion).
To do this, It will allocate 7,000 million dollars to a lunar program focused on “commercial systems that allow more ambitious later lunar missions.” All looks point to the Spacex Starship system and the Blue Moon Moon Module from Blue Origin.
In addition, they reserve $ 1 billion to start a new manned program to Mars, Following Elon Musk’s recommendationswhose vision shares the future NASA administrator and also Jared Isaacman businessman. An approach that prioritizes the speed and reduction of costs through the private sector, leaving aside the traditional international collaboration models based on contributions from other agencies.
Who looks at? The general director of ESA, Josef Aschbacher, has responded with the expected diplomacy. In A statementHe explains that follow -up meetings with NASA are already being held to evaluate the impact of cuts.
“From here at the end of the year, ESA will celebrate the Council meeting at the ministerial level, determined to further enhance the role of Europe in space,” says Aschbacher, adding NASA to NASA in a subtle polish that that “undertakes not only to be a reliable partner, but also robust and desirable.”
Will perhaps open a closer collaboration with China? China, of course, is willing to become “the new NASA.” Ha Open to international collaborators The tianwen-3 mission of marcian samples and the Robotic mission Chang-e’8 to the moon, perhaps aware that the power vacuum that the US leaves can be filled with a greater opening.
Image | Halo Module Structure of the Lunar Gateway Station (Tales, ESA)
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