At a June 12 press briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council, agency officials said they had a “deep discussion” about the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA released May 30 that would, if enacted, affect science and exploration programs involving the two agencies, from Artemis to Earth science.
“We are impacted on quite of number of domains that, at least for the moment, are proposed for cancellations or reductions,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA director general, said. “We are doing our homework in analyzing what is the impact and what could be options and measures we could take in order to make sure that investments that have been made by our member states are utilized in the best possible way.”
The impacts of the NASA budget cut across ESA, illustrating the significant cooperation between the two agencies. The biggest is in exploration, with the budget proposing an end to the Orion spacecraft, to which ESA provides the service module, after Artemis 3, as well as canceling the lunar Gateway, Mars Sample Return (MSR) and NASA support for ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover mission.
Work on those efforts is continuing currently, said Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at ESA. “Of course, we anticipate options,” he said, such as studying with industry potential, unspecified alternative uses for the Orion service module and the Earth Return Orbiter for MSR.
He said that ESA and its industrial partners are continuing work on the service module, or ESM, for Artemis 4, set for delivery this year. “We are studying with the industry consortium delivering the European service modules some alternative missions for ESM,” he said. “We will continue to deliver the ESM as long as they are needed.”
Aschbacher said that ESA has maintained “close interactions” with NASA on the budget proposal, including briefings from NASA officials. “We have a very open and transparent working relationship,” he said.
ESA used the briefing to emphasize that it has a wide range of other international partnerships that could be expanded even if partnerships with NASA shrink.
He said that includes looking for “reinforced partnerships” with countries to compensate for any reductions of cooperation with NASA. One example he gave was an agreement with the Indian space agency ISRO signed in May to cooperate on human spaceflight. That could lead, he said, to ESA astronauts visiting ISRO’s space station planned for the 2030s as one option for European astronauts after the retirement of the International Space Station.
Also my preferred way. But not everybody can switch right away.