The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, announced on the evening of Monday 5 May that NASA had informed ESA of possible budget cuts in its lunar programmes for 2026, which would have an impact on European programmes.
“While some questions still remain about the full repercussions, follow-up meetings are already taking place with NASA”, he announced in a press release, adding that ESA remained open to cooperation with NASA on programmes to be reduced or terminated.
ESA is studying the impact of this cooperation with its Member States ahead of its Council on 11 and 12 June, when an assessment of “potential actions and alternative scenarios” for the ESA programmes affected and related European industry will be conducted with the Member States. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)