Minibus provides $24.4 billion for NASA for fiscal year 2026

Updated 12:30 p.m. Eastern with details from bill report.

PHOENIX — House and Senate appropriators have released the text of a final appropriations bill for fiscal 2026 that largely rejects the steep cuts the Trump administration proposed for NASA.

The “minibus” appropriations package, released Jan. 5 by the leadership of the House and Senate appropriations committees, combines three bills, including the Commerce, Justice and Science bill that funds NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The minibus provides $24.438 billion for NASA in fiscal 2026, slightly less than the $24.875 billion the agency received in 2024 and again in 2025 under a full-year continuing resolution.

That total, though, is far higher than the $18.8 billion requested for NASA in the administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal released in May. The White House proposal called for cuts of nearly 50% to both science and space technology, along with smaller reductions to space operations and aeronautics. The proposal would have canceled dozens of missions.

The minibus rejects most of the proposed reductions to NASA science, providing $7.25 billion, compared with $7.33 billion in fiscal 2025. Space technology would receive $920.5 million, down from $1.1 billion in fiscal 2025 but much higher than the proposed$569 million. Space operations, which includes the International Space Station and support for commercial space stations, would receive $4.175 billion, compared with $4.22 billion in fiscal 2025.

Funding for exploration is lower than the administration’s request of more than $8.3 billion but slightly higher than current levels. The minibus provides $7.783 billion, compared with $7.666 billion in 2025.

The bill also reduces funding for some administrative and infrastructure accounts but rejects the administration’s proposal to eliminate NASA’s education account, known as STEM Engagement. The measure provides $143 million for the program, unchanged from fiscal 2025.

The conference report accompanying the bill, released shortly afterwards, confirmed that the bill restored funding for the various science divisions, from Earth science to astrophysics, to close to 2025 levels and, in some cases, slightly above.

However, a major exception is Mars Sample Return, which the budget proposal sought to cancel because of cost and schedule overruns. “As proposed in the budget, the agreement does not support the existing Mars Sample Return (MSR) program,” the report states. However, it directs NASA to preserve work on key technologies related to MSR through $110 million allocated to a Mars Future Missions account.

The report also includes $110 million for Landsat Next, which the proposal sought to cancel, in the Earth science account. It approves NASA’s plans to move the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program of commercial lunar missions from science to exploration, providing at least $250 million.

For other priorities, the report includes $250 million for Fission Surface Power, a program to develop a nuclear reactor for the moon by 2030. It provides $273.2 million for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, program to support commercial space station development.

The report also provides between $110 million and $120 million for nuclear thermal propulsion and up to $50 million for nuclear electric propulsion within the space technology budget. The report directs NASA to provide a development strategy for both propulsion technologies and a proposal to move that work to the Mars Campaign Office within the exploration mission directorate.