Trump’s NASA Cuts and the Rise of SpaceX Under Musk

In January 2025, wildfires in Los Angeles prompted a wave of resignations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where more than 200 staff lost their homes. Within weeks, the Trump administration moved to slash the agency’s science-program budget by 47 percent. The cuts triggered a “deferred resignation programme” and voluntary redundancies that saw about 20 percent of NASA’s workforce—roughly 4,000 employees—leave. Former employees described the atmosphere as one of “widespread fear” as rumors spread that the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) would oversee major projects slated for elimination.

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The administration’s budgetary shift coincided with a partnership with Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, who headed Doge in its early months after Trump took office in 2025. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has cut launch costs by 90 percent, and its Starship megarocket, which entered Earth orbit for the first time last week, is slated to land astronauts on the Moon by 2028. The company now operates more than 15,700 active satellites, with nearly two-thirds belonging to Starlink. Reuters estimates SpaceX secured at least $7 billion in Pentagon contracts this year, while the Department of War relies on Starlink for emergency communications and on the classified Starshield spy-satellite network.

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President Trump framed the reorientation as a “golden age” of space exploration, declaring, “We will lead the world in space exploration.”

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• “We will lead the world in space exploration,” — Donald Trump

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• “Musk has gone his own way and it’s left Nasa behind in terms of achieving the things it wanted to do,” — Tim Farrar, a satellite industry analyst

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• “A couple of years ago, Falcon 9 was grounded for a few weeks after an incident, and people panicked globally because it is their primary ride to space,” — Laura Forczyk, founder of space consulting firm Astralytical

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