The war on ‘woke science’ comes for space research
A proposed rule from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget could grant political appointees control over federal science funding, sparking concerns about the future of open-access research. Critics argue the move threatens peer review and restricts public access to taxpayer-funded scientific data.
Why it matters
The proposal represents a significant shift in how scientific research is funded and disseminated, potentially impacting the transparency and independence of U.S. space research.
The Trump administration is waging a culture war on science, and the latest salvo is in the form of a dry, bureaucratic proposal from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that could threaten the future of US science as we know it.
The proposal would give political appointees unprecedented control over grant funding, the method through which scientists receive federal money to perform groundbreaking space research such as the search for evidence of organic compounds on Mars or the discovery of some of the earliest galaxies in the universe.
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