Community Rallies to Save Chandra

You might have heard that the FY25 President’s Budget Request (PBR) for NASA includes a dramatic ramp-down in the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s budget starting in the new fiscal year, which the Chandra Users' Committee says is effectively a rapid cancellation of the mission. The PBR states that Chandra’s mission costs and inefficiencies have been escalating; however, the Chandra X-ray Center has posted a rebuttal of these claims, suggesting instead that the mission’s efficiency and operating costs have been stable, and that Chandra is healthy and able to operate for a further five years or more, potentially up to a decade. 

Members of the national and global Chandra community have submitted an open letter with 87 pages of signatures to Dr. Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and Dr. Mark Clampin, Director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division. Visit www.savechandra.org for instructions on how to contact your Congressional representatives and rally support before the Chandra project must make “catastrophic, irreversible” layoffs to the mission starting on 1 October 2024.