On January 16th, Lousie Prockter, the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division sent a letter to the leaders of eight science organizations, notifying them that NASA will be ending their financial support by last April of 2026.  These organizations are known as AG’s, or assessment and analysis groups, and their defunding is part of a broader decrease in NASAs structure.

The organizations being defunded research specific planetary science topics, ranging from the moon to the solar system.  These groups met with NASA at least once a year, to share new information and to discuss mission ideas.

According to Prockter, there have been several changes, such as executive orders, the elimination of advisory committees and a “highly constrained” planetary support budget that contributed to this change.

In a meeting on January 20th, Prockter wanted to stress the importance of these agencies, emphasizing that while the association can’t financially support them, they are not abolishing them. In addition, while NASA plans to end all formal funding, they still may be able to provide “small support” to remaining AG’s such as covering costs for high-value community activities.

Even without federal funding, some of the AG’s, like the Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), plan to continue operations as self-organized entities.  

This choice is part of a larger movement by federal agencies to reduce the amount of advisory committees. The AG’s provided funding for advisory committees such as the Planetary Science Advisory Committee, along with others dealing with astrophysics and Earth Science that NASA abolished last year. 

However, while many committees have been abolished, some, such as the International Space Station Advisory Committee, continue to operate.

NASA claims that it will replace a multitude of the advisory committees with a single committee, dedicated to all divisions, but the association has not released any information on committee membership or plans.