Trump has proposed axing NASA’s Surface Geology and Biology mission, which monitors methane and carbon pollution but also hunts for and identifies deposits of critical minerals. Also endangered is NASA’s Landsat satellite program, which provides key data on water levels and distribution as well as the ways global warming is altering Earth.

Nor was that the end of the bad news. The next day Donald Trump, America’s president, announced he was withdrawing his nomination of Jared Isaacman, a well-regarded businessman and private astronaut, as NASA ’s boss. For at least the next several months, the agency will have to contemplate its straitened future without a permanent leader.