In a statement, the GSFC said the downsizing plans were devised long before the Trump administration began slashing agency budgets this year. It would be the biggest single-year drop in funding in the space agency’s history, erasing nearly half of NASA’s science budget. As Ars Technica points out, nobody knows for sure what would happen to NASA’s budget in the event of a government shutdown. But that’s far from a guarantee, leaving the fate of the space agency and the GSFC largely unknown. More on NASA: New Report Finds That China’s Space Program Is Rapidly Outstripping NASA