Highlights from the President's FY 2018 Budget Request: NASA

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

The Science Mission Directorate within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would receive $5.7 billion in the president’s proposed FY 2018 budget, a $53.1 million (0.9 percent) decrease from FY 2017. Within the directorate, the following research areas would receive funding:

• $1.9 billion for planetary science, a $83.5 million (4.5 percent) increase from FY 2017;
• $1.8 billion for earth science, a $166.9 million (8.7 percent) decrease from FY 2017;
• $816.7 million for astrophysics, a $66.7 million (8.9 percent) increase from FY 2017;
• $677.8 million for heliophysics, a $700,000 (0.1 percent) decrease from FY 2017; and,
• $533.7 million for the James Webb Space Telescope, a $35.7 million (6.3 percent) decrease from FY 2017.

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate would receive $678.6 million in FY 2018 under the president’s proposed budget, a $7.9 million (1.2 percent) decrease. While the FY 2017 budget did not include individual program funding levels for the directorate, the FY 2018 proposed budget would allocate:

• $466.7 million for Space Technology Research and Development;
• $31.9 million for agency technology and innovation; and,
• $180.0 million for SBIR and STTR.

The president’s proposed FY 2018 budget would eliminate the Office of Education within NASA, though the office would receive $37.3 million in FY 2018 to wind down operations. This office, which supports outreach and programming around STEM education, received $100 million in FY 2017.