Bill Nye expressed to NBC News that Donald Trump’s proposal to reduce NASA’s budget by 23% represents a “huge mistake.” This announcement follows heightened national interest in NASA’s Artemis II moon mission.
“NASA is the best brand the U.S. has. People around the world recognize NASA,” Nye remarked. “The word science is in the Constitution. That’s what keeps the U.S. ahead. You cannot be a leader in space without being a leader in science. It’s just a mistake.”
Previously, the Trump administration attempted an 18% cut to NASA’s $24.4 billion budget, which Congress rejected, approving the budget in January. Nye described the initial proposal as “dead on arrival,” adding that the repetition of such attempts without clarity is puzzling, especially given its timing with the Artemis II mission.
“This time, the President’s Budget Request is objectively much lazier,” Nye commented on the new proposal. “There are typos; they refer to 2026 instead of 2027, and they left out some language arbitrarily. It’s sort of cut and paste without paying attention.”
Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch embarked on a 10-day lunar mission earlier this month aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft. This endeavor marked the farthest any crew has traveled from Earth, garnering international headlines for the U.S. space program. Hollywood also joined in, with Ryan Gosling, star of “Project Hail Mary,” sending a video message to the astronauts before launch.
“We were all really lucky. We got to watch ‘Hail Mary’ when we were in quarantine [before launch],” Hansen later revealed when asked about what message he would give Gosling. “That was a real treat that they sent us a link to view that at home with our families, getting us ready to go on our own space adventure. I would just say to Ryan, art imitates science and vice versa, it seems. He did a great job in that movie. It’s wonderful to see people really leaning into those roles.”
Watch Nye’s interview with NBC News in the video below.
