The Trump Administration’s funding cuts have been deep to the budgets of NASA and the National Science Foundation.
And there is more handwringing over the 2026 budget that lawmakers are in the process of marking up.
Cuts would total roughly half of the budgets of the NSF and NASA. The U.S. telescopes stand to be hit especially hard under the proposed cuts.
The Conversation spoke with Doug Simons, the director of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaiʻi, to talk about the future of astronomy and research at the telescopes across Hawaiʻi.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 1, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
