President Trump's proposed budget cuts NASA's funding by six billion dollars and the agency's science funding by half. That could lead to the Artemis Project at NASA's Michoud facility in New Orleans East being scrapped and jobs at that location being eliminated.
Congress could restore some of those funds, and that's good news for projects going on at the Michoud plant.
"Clearly, there's lot of Congressional support for the space launch system rocket and the work that's done at Michoud to keep that thing flying," CBS space consultant Bill Harwood said. "Hopefully, from NASA's perspective, those funds will, in fact, be restored."
Harwood says the Trump Administration planned to kill the Artemis program after its third flight, which is scheduled to put astronauts on the moon. For now, at least two flights have been added back to the budget, but Harwood cautions that the Artemis and Orion projects going on at Michoud could still wind up on the chopping block.
"This depends on what gets enacted in the final budget, and we don't know that yet," Harwood said.
Harwood says the Trump Administration could use a tactic to starve NASA of the money it needs to run those programs before Congress acts.
"There's a lot of concern out there that the administration is going to use some tools that would basically impound the NASA money, (and) that money wouldn't flow to those programs that they want to cut," Harwood said. "I can't predict how that's gonna run. I'm not a budget guy, but it's a pretty grim outlook if the congressional folks don't win the day here."
