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To close that detection gap, NASA is developing the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, a dedicated space telescope designed to identify asteroids and comets by detecting their thermal signatures rather than relying solely on visible light. By observing infrared emissions, the spacecraft will be able to locate darker objects that current ground-based systems frequently miss. However, the NEO Surveyor program has faced financial and scheduling challenges. A NASA Inspector General report published in 2025 found that funding constraints had pushed the mission’s projected launch date from 2026 to 2028. The baseline cost estimate has also risen significantly, increasing from approximately $1 billion to $1.6 billion. Compounding concerns, the White House earlier this year proposed a sweeping 25% reduction to NASA’s overall budget — a move the Planetary Society described as the largest single-year cut in the agency’s history. The proposal raised fresh uncertainty about the future of planetary defense initiatives, including NEO Surveyor. Congress ultimately rejected most of the proposed reductions in January 2026, allowing the telescope project to remain funded and on track for a 2027–2028 launch window. Despite the current limitations in defensive readiness, Fast sought to provide context and avoid unnecessary alarm. Small space rocks routinely enter Earth’s atmosphere and typically burn up harmlessly. Extremely large asteroids — those capable of triggering global mass extinctions like the object that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago — are generally well tracked because their size makes them easier to detect. The greatest vulnerability, she said, lies in the intermediate category. “We’re not so much worried about the really large ones because we know where those are,” Fast said. “It’s the ones in between that could pose regional damage.” Asteroids measuring approximately 140 meters in diameter and larger fall into that middle range. An impact from such an object could obliterate a major metropolitan area or cause widespread regional devastation. Yet the majority of these potentially hazardous objects remain undiscovered. Chabot emphasized that the technical capacity to build a robust planetary defense system already exists. What is required, she said, is sustained political will, funding, and long-term strategic planning. “We could be prepared for this threat,” she said. “We could be in very good shape. We need to take those steps to do it. If anything keeps me awake, it’s that.”