NASA science chief Nicky Fox bluntly asked, “How in the hell do I get more science into space?” as the agency wrestles with a budget that has barely budged since 2000 – roughly $7.25 billion in today’s dollars today. While commercial launchers like SpaceX have driven launch costs down, the number of NASA‑run telescopes and planetary probes has shrunk compared with the mid‑1990s.

Fox argues the solution lies in “right‑sized” missions – ten $100 million spacecraft rather than a single billion‑dollar flagship. Mass‑produced satellite buses could carry fewer instruments each but fly in clusters, cutting development time and price tags. Companies such as Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Blue Ring are prototyping high‑power, reusable platforms that could serve lunar, Martian and even asteroid payloads.

The agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program already uses privately built landers to deliver NASA experiments, and Fox wants that model extended to deep‑space science. If NASA can lock in bulk purchases of off‑the‑shelf buses, it could launch dozens of probes without waiting years for a custom build, finally delivering the volume of data scientists have been craving.