The approximate 20 percent budget cut could force the closure of the Goddard Space Flight Center and would see projects such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope scrapped.

The preliminary version of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress, known as a “passback,” would cut the agency’s science budget funding nearly in half.

President Donald Trump’s proposed annual budget for NASA next year would nearly cut in half the agency’s science funding, while potentially cutting off money for other major initiatives like returning soil from Mars and a new space telescope,