Legacy aerospace companies received a significant boost on Tuesday, as the U.S. Senate approved a major funding increase for NASA’s Artemis program under President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill. The approved $10 billion expansion of the Artemis initiative notably includes financing additional Space Launch System (SLS) rockets and funding for constructing the Gateway lunar station.
This Congressional decision sharply contrasts with the recent position voiced by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, a figure once nominated by Musk himself to serve as NASA Administrator. Both Musk and Isaacman strongly advocated for NASA to pivot toward reusable launch systems rather than continuing reliance on the expendable SLS rocket, which the two billionaires repeatedly criticized due to its one-time use nature and escalating costs.
Tensions between Musk and former President Trump have noticeably worsened over recent weeks, particularly since Trump’s sudden withdrawal of the Isaacman nomination, leading to strained relations that appear unlikely to improve following this legislative outcome.
Musk has long stressed the economic unsustainability of expendable rockets, stating previously that each SLS launch effectively destroys billions of dollars of hardware. Recent assessments by NASA’s own inspector general affirmed Musk’s concerns, placing the recurring production costs for each individual SLS rocket closer to $2.5 billion.
To date, the SLS program has consumed roughly $24 billion in federal spending. The main beneficiaries of these funds have primarily been aerospace industry incumbents, including Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne, all sharing responsibilities for SLS component manufacture.
During recent Senate confirmation hearings, Isaacman conceded short-term use of SLS rockets for imminent Artemis missions but clearly indicated that the system did not represent NASA’s future pathway for routine exploration and return missions to the moon or eventual journeys to Mars.
Despite these criticisms, Congress pushed forward with funding the rocket system. Of the newly appropriated $10 billion, approximately $4.1 billion will cover the costs for two additional SLS rockets to support Artemis missions 4 and 5, and around $2.6 billion will finance the completion of the Gateway lunar orbiting habitat.
Interestingly, the President’s earlier NASA budget proposal released in May recommended phasing out both the SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule following Artemis III. This new Congressional funding directly contradicts that prior recommendation and comes notably in the aftermath of the Trump-Musk dispute beginning in June.
Additionally, the bill directs $700 million towards development of a new Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, allocates around $1.25 billion to extend operations aboard the International Space Station, and earmarks $325 million towards SpaceX funding for developing a spacecraft specifically designed to safely deorbit and retire the ISS by decade’s end—complementing SpaceX’s total award for this deorbiting vehicle at $843 million.
