US Congress has rejected plans to slash NASA's science budget, restoring most funding with one notable exception: Mars Sample Return remains cancelled.
A joint explanatory statement was released earlier this month, and lawmakers have passed the bill. The legislation, passed with 82 senators voting for it, 15 against, and three abstaining, reverses an earlier proposal that would have cut NASA's overall budget by nearly 25 percent and halved science spending – potentially shutting down many active missions.
Instead, NASA will receive only slightly less than in recent years, though inflation reduces actual spending power.
In a statement, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said: "The bill rejects the administration's devastating proposal to cut NASA Science by 47 percent and terminate 55 operating and planned missions."
In remarks made on the Senate floor, Van Hollen said: "We won't have a space program if we don't understand what's happening in space and get to the fundamentals of science in space."
However, the budget appears to be the final blow for Mars Sample Return. While the Perseverance rover is collecting samples on Mars, whether the rover's containers will ever be returned to Earth for analysis is debatable.
The budget requirement for the ambitious mission ballooned as engineers grappled with the challenges, leading then NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to call for alternatives that could return samples more quickly and cheaply.
NASA whittled down the options by the start of 2025, but it looks like another option – cancel the whole thing altogether – will be the final outcome.
The budget, should President Donald Trump sign it off, will come as a relief to the majority of the US space agency and its supporters.
In an email to The Reg, The Planetary Society said: "With this budget, missions such as New Horizons beyond Pluto, VIPER (looking for water resources on the Moon), and the Apophis Explorer, set to study a hazardous asteroid that will barely miss Earth in 2029, will continue operations." ®
Source: The register