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As in previous decades, spaceflight science and space exploration are still, by far, the largest areas of investment, although the department of safety, security and mission services also has a considerable portion of the budget. One notable change in NASA’s overall budget in 2020 is that there is no provision for education or STEM engagement.

NASA in the 2010s

2011 marked the end of NASA's Space Shuttle Program, with the retirement of the three remaining shuttles taking place between February and July. This program launched in 1972, completed over 130 successful missions, and was instrumental in supplying the International Space Station (ISS). Throughout the 2010s progress continued regarding the ISS and NASA's commercial contracts. Plans to launch and facilitate a space-tourism program are in place and are expected to begin in the next year. Between the years 2010 and 2017 NASA conducted the Beyond Low Earth Orbit Program, which would help enable missions that go beyond the earth's orbit, including plans for a space station that orbits the moon. NASA has also sent many unmanned projects to other celestial bodies, including Mars and Jupiter.

The new world

In 2017, NASA was directed by the government to get humans near or on the surface of Mars by 2030, and later that year the Trump administration approved plans to launch the Artemis Project, which would land the first woman on the moon, as part of their project to go to Mars. Although NASA is set to receive almost 23 billion dollars in 2020, this is less than 0.5 percent of the total US budget for the year, which many prominent scientists, such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, feel is not enough.