Some Colorado space jobs and research funding in jeopardy with federal budget cuts under consideration
From Space Force to space research, Colorado is known for its work in the aerospace industry. Now some of that work is in jeopardy after cuts to NASA funding were included in proposed federal budget cuts.
Some space researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder said they are concerned about how the proposed cuts could affect them. That includes Shannon Curry, an Associate Professor in Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences.
Curry is one of the CU scientists who has been receiving information from NASA's Maven spacecraft, which entered the orbit of Mars in 2014.
"The first time you get data down and no one has ever seen it before, it's so exhilarating," Curry said.
The Maven mission could be on the chopping block if the federal budget legislation is approved, which Curry says could drastically slow down any progress for a human mission to Mars. The proposed 25% cut to NASA's overall budget comes as President Trump aims to shrink federal spending.
"When we found out that Maven might be canceled, we were devastated on a personal and professional level," Curry said. "This has been my life's work."
Curry says the impact of the cuts would be felt on American space missions well beyond the ones CU is involved in.
"NASA and the U.S. could very well cede leadership to other countries, in particular countries that have made no secret of trying to have more presence there, including China and Russia," Curry said.
The proposed funding cuts at CU could also mean job cuts for researchers which leaves Curry and her team to have no clear picture of their own future or their missions.
"We've never decommissioned a spacecraft at Mars. So this would be a first, and this is not something anyone wants to do, or frankly, feels prepared to do, on this kind of a timeline," she said.
That timeline could mean changes coming as soon as next school year, and it could impact how much money comes into the university and Colorado.
"We work hard and are responsible for good paying American jobs. These are the kinds of things that if these missions are canceled, I don't know what a lot of people are going to be doing in the future," Curry said.
