NASA Juno Spacecraft at Jupiter: Active Science Mission Canceled in FY2026 Budget

NASA Juno Spacecraft at Jupiter: Active Science Mission Canceled in FY2026 Budget

NASA’s Juno Mission is the only human spacecraft currently operating at the planet Jupiter. NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request is cancelling all funding for the mission, although the Juno spacecraft can continue to capture precious science data on Jupiter with its 97 moons—at least four support the conditions for life as we know it. Why is this unique national asset being deactivated prematurely to the detriment of the international scientific community?

Moreover, NASA's total science budget is being cut nearly 50%. This will result in the cancellation of 19 active science missions and end several planned ones deemed crucial by the National Academy of Sciences, including those involving partnerships with international space agencies.

Contact your representatives in the United States Congress, House and Senate, to express your concerns about severe budget cuts at NASA:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/

NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request (PDF) Document Download: https://www.nasa.gov/fy-2026-budget-request/ (See Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request Summary)

Since it arrived at Jupiter in 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been probing beneath the dense, forbidding clouds encircling the giant planet—the first orbiter to peer so closely. It seeks answers to questions about the origin and evolution of Jupiter, our solar system, and giant planets across the cosmos. Each perijove passes near a new part of Jupiter's cloud tops. A perijove indicates the point in the Juno spacecraft's orbit when it comes closest to planet Jupiter's center. If we measure by volume, approximately 1,300 Earths could fit inside Jupiter.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program. This is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

Learn more about NASA's Juno mission:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

Image Data: 

Jupiter NEB - PJ35-61

Image rotated 90⁰, North to the right.

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Processing: Kevin M. Gill

Release Date: June 19, 2025

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