https://apnews.com/article/trump-nasa-climate-satellites-34f533a1d28db954e30b2101d0ae186c
BY TAMMY WEBBER
Updated 6:59 PM EDT, August 6, 2025
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The Trump administration is moving to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health, potentially shutting off an important source of data for scientists, policymakers and farmers.
President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 includes no money for the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which can precisely show where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed and how well crops are growing.
NASA said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the missions were “beyond their prime mission” and being terminated “to align with the President’s agenda and budget priorities.”
But the missions — a free-flying satellite launched in 2014 and an instrument attached to the International Space Station in 2019 that include technology used in the Hubble Space Telescope — still are more sensitive and accurate than any other systems in the world, operating or planned, and a “national asset” that should be saved, said David Crisp, a retired NASA scientist who led their development.
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Congressional Democrats warned acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy last month that it would be illegal to terminate missions or impound funds already appropriated by Congress.
Experts said the administration’s move to eliminate funding aligns with other actions to cut or bury climate science.
“The principle seems to be that if we stop measuring climate change it will just disappear from the American consciousness,” said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann.
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President Trump is defunding the climate police. https://t.co/yr9TvaQNET pic.twitter.com/paDDC05ENu
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) August 7, 2025
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