Proposed federal budget would slash NASA spending.
The Trump administration released its requested 2026 budget last Friday, and Rick Glasby tells us, it wasn’t kind to NASA.
It would slash the space agency’s funding by 24% and its workforce by nearly one third. A number of high-profile missions would get the axe, including the New Horizons Pluto probe, Mars Sample Return mission, and Juno Jupiter orbiter. There’s one growth area in the proposed funding: Mars-related missions. The budget request represents the biggest single-year cut to NASA funding in history.
The Planetary Society calls the proposed budget cuts “an extinction-level event” for NASA’s science missions.
Elon Musk updates his plan for SpaceX Starship to reach Mars
In a video SpaceX posted online last week Musk described the goal of sending humans to Mars as essential “for the long term survival of civilization."
The Starship spacecraft, has faced a series of setbacks in its three most recent flight tests.
Musk wants to send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars by the end of 2026 as the timeline coincides with an orbital alignment around the sun that would shorten the journey between Earth and Mars. A slim window that occurs once about every two years, the journey itself would take between seven to nine months.
To meet Musk's high expectations, SpaceX is looking to expand operations to Florida in order to ramp up both Starship production and testing.
While Trump's recently-released 2026 budget proposal would cut NASAs funding by about 25% overall, it does call for allocating more than $1 billion for Mars exploration.
Florida ranks 17th in best, worst state economies
A new study from personal finance company WalletHub looked at the best and worst state economies for 2025, based on 28 key indicators of economic performance and strength including change in GDP, state debt, exports per capita, unemployment rate, median annual household income, foreclosure rates, growth in number of businesses and start-ups, education and more.
Florida came in at No. 17 with a total score of 53.01 in WalletHub's rankings. No. 1 was Massachusetts, with a score of 70.84.
A lifesaving tale inspires CPR trainees
Hundreds of people received basic C-P-R training on Saturday during Leon County's yearly Press the Chest event at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center. They were inspired by the real-life story of a survivor and the people who saved his life.
One of those life savers was FSU student Brandon Moore. He and his buddies were playing golf at the city's Hilaman Course when a passerby called them to help another golfer who'd collapsed with cardiac arrest. Moore had this message for the Press the Chest attendees.
"If you see a gentleman waving you down and he looks distressed, go over. You never know the situation you could be a part of and you could change someone's life doing it."
Moore and his buddies certainly changed - and possibly saved - the life of the cardiac victim, Todd Watkins. He was at the event to tell his side of the story.
"My message would be to at least take the time to get prepared so you can help when the time comes - if it does come - and what a gift that will be for whoever that happens to be."
The cardiac victim also made a statement about the incident.
That's a message the crowd at the Civic Center seemed to take to heart as they learned basic life saving techniques on Saturday.
More: www.floridatoday.com
