Also known as: NASA
Microgravity drug research is expanding from ISS crystal studies to commercial manufacturing efforts. New experiments and a Varda-United Therapeutics collaboration target improved drug stability, delivery and production.
An ISS National Laboratory-sponsored project will send six extremophile microbes from Antarctica and Chile to the space station for about six months of exposure. Researchers will analyze genetic, structural, and protein-level changes after return to Earth.
Congress rejected the administration’s deepest proposed science cuts, increasing NIH funding by about $415 million to $48.7 billion. NASA and NSF also saw far smaller reductions than proposed.
NASA’s Artemis II mission ended with a splashdown off California after a roughly 10-day crewed test flight around the Moon. The return tested Orion’s heat shield after issues seen on Artemis I and marked the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
Trump proposed significant cuts to major US science agencies for 2027, including a 13% reduction for the NIH and a nearly 55% cut for the NSF. The administration also let lapse its Supreme Court deadline in a separate fight to cap NIH research overhead payments at 15%.
Thousands of research positions have been terminated or frozen at federal agencies following deep cuts to U.S. science funding by the Trump administration, affecting work from aging studies to global food security.
