NASA’s Gold Standard Climate Satellite Faces Shutdown Amid Budget Battle
NASA’s flagship carbon dioxide monitoring satellites—including the highly successful OCO-2 and its sibling instrument aboard the International Space Station—are facing early shutdown plans initiated by the Trump administration, NPR has reported.
Although both systems remain fully operational and continue providing critical climate data, NASA is reportedly preparing for their termination, despite no technical failure or congressional directive to do so.
Launched in 2014, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) has been instrumental in mapping atmospheric CO2 concentrations across the globe. It helps scientists understand how carbon flows through the planet’s systems—insights vital for modeling climate change and informing global agreements like the Paris Accord.
“OCO-2 collects a great number of high-resolution measurements…a bigger, clearer, more complete picture of global CO2,” NASA explains.
Originally a backup for the failed OCO-1 mission, OCO-2 has exceeded expectations, becoming the “gold standard” in orbital carbon tracking. It also delivered unexpected value: mapping plant photosynthesis by detecting the “glow” of vegetation, aiding not just scientists but farmers monitoring crop health and yield.
Yet, according to sources interviewed by NPR—including retired NASA scientist David Crisp and current anonymous employees—NASA teams have been quietly instructed to draft termination plans.
“They were asking me very sharp questions. The only thing that would have motivated those questions was [that] somebody told them to come up with a termination plan,” said Crisp.
Even more worrying: the OCO-3 instrument aboard the ISS, launched in 2019, is also at risk. While it could be retrieved and repurposed later, OCO-2 would burn up during atmospheric re-entry, making its loss permanent.
Critics, including congressional Democrats, argue the administration’s move bypasses legal budgetary processes.
“Congress has the power of the purse, not Trump or Vought,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, adding that stripping funding already approved for 2025 is “illegal” and would “severely impair our ability to respond to climate disasters.”
The irony? While the satellites’ development cost the U.S. around $750 million, keeping them operational costs a mere $15 million a year—a small sum for data that underpins global climate strategy.
NASA is now reportedly seeking private funding to keep OCO-3 running until the end of the ISS’s mission. But unless political pressure reverses the move, OCO-2’s fate seems sealed—another casualty in the tug-of-war between climate science and partisan politics.