On Tuesday, July 1, the Senate breathed new life into NASA’s floundering Artemis program by passing President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill. If signed into law, the legislation would allocate an additional $6 billion to Artemis’ current mission architecture.
The new funds, which include support for additional Space Launch System (SLS) rockets, the Orion spacecraft, and a lunar space station called Gateway, represent a major win for legacy aerospace providers Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and L3 Harris Technologies’ Aerojet Rocketdyne division. These companies have collectively received about $24 billion for SLS production to date. Critics of these technologies—including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman—have argued in favor of using newer, more cost-effective infrastructure instead. The Senate’s decision rebukes such criticism and directly challenges the White House’s own strategic vision for NASA.
Trump’s “skinny” budget proposal, released in May, aims to slash $6 billion from NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2026. Part of that reduction would come from overhauling the Artemis program’s architecture. In addition to terminating the Gateway program, the proposal called for phasing out both the SLS and the Orion capsule—the spacecraft that would carry Artemis crews to the Moon—after the Artemis 3 mission and replacing them with commercial alternatives.
On June 5, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, unveiled legislative directives for the Senate Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill. In an effort to prioritize beating China to the Moon and Mars, the proposal dedicates nearly $10 billion in additional funding to enable future Mars missions, maintain the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030, and support Artemis’s existing infrastructure.
Of that $10 billion, $2.6 billion would go toward fully funding Gateway, $4.1 billion would support SLS, and $20 million would go to the development of Orion. The bill also dedicates $700 million to a new Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, underscoring Congress’s focus on a Moon-to-Mars strategy. By passing this bill, the Senate effectively reversed course on the plan that Trump’s 2026 budget proposal laid out for NASA.
If Trump signs the bill into law, it could escalate the ongoing conflict between him and Musk. Their falling out began after Trump withdrew Isaacman’s NASA Administrator nomination at the end of May. Like Musk, Isaacman has criticized aspects of the Artemis program’s key infrastructure. During his Senate confirmation hearings, he admitted that Orion and SLS were the fastest way to beat China to the Moon but stated that SLS’s expendability and high per-launch cost made it unsustainable for frequent lunar operations or future Mars missions.
Musk has been particularly vocal in his criticism of SLS, arguing that reusable rockets—like those made by SpaceX—would be far more cost-effective over the long term. He has also taken aim at the Artemis missions themselves, claiming that they are a “distraction” from Mars objectives. Trump’s 2026 budget proposal, drafted while Musk served as a senior advisor to the President, heavily reflected the SpaceX executive’s position on NASA’s Moon-to-Mars program—and served to benefit his company.
If signed, the budget reconciliation bill would upend this plan, giving Musk one more reason to hate it. He’s been banging his fists on the table for weeks, calling the legislation a “disgusting abomination.” Musk’s criticisms sparked an online feud with Trump that played out over the course of several days via their respective social media platforms, X and Truth Social.
The massive tax and spending budget bill is now returning to the House for a final vote. As Congress closes in on Trump’s July 4 deadline to present him with a final version for signing, the future of NASA’s lunar program hangs in the balance. The agency has faced unprecedented uncertainty since Trump took office in January. If he signs this bill into law, it could, at least, get one of NASA’s flagship programs back on track.
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