National Science Foundation

Independent federal agency funding approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research at U.S. colleges and universities. - Received $8.75B for FY2026, avoiding proposed 57% cut

For 80 years, federal science funding enjoyed bipartisan protection. President Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget proposed ending that consensus, calling for cuts of 57% to the National Science Foundation (NSF), 47% to NASA's science programs, and 40% to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Congress said no. On January 30, 2026, Trump signed a spending bill that preserves most science agency budgets—passed by votes of 397-28 in the House and 82-15 in the Senate.

Updated Jan 30

Federal agency funding telescope and operations in partnership with DOE. - Primary funder and operations overseer

On June 23, 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images—and they're staggering. A 3.2-gigapixel camera, the largest ever built for astronomy, captured 10 million galaxies in a single frame. In just 10 hours of test observations, it found 2,104 asteroids nobody knew existed, including seven near-Earth objects. This isn't a telescope taking pretty pictures—it's a time machine that will photograph the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every three nights for a decade.

Updated Jan 7