This is being achieved, officials warn, by a political campaign to impose unapproved budget cuts, leaving engineers afraid to speak and astronauts at heightened risk. Under the Trump administration, budget proposals saw a 25% slash in NASA’s funding, dropping the space agency’s overall budget to $18.8 billion, down from just over $24 billion in 2020. Experts and NASA employees are concerned that this could mean not only the demise of several projects but also the loss of hard-learned safety protocols. The report states that these new internal budget shifts are part of an “illegal plot” that would ignore congressional funding levels. By contrast, multiple employees now report a reluctance to bring safety and security issues to the attention of leadership.