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Science 31 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5769, p. 1847
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5769.1847b
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ScienceScope

NASA has eased the pain to researchers bloodied by cuts in its planetary science and astrobiology programs.

This week, NASA reinstated the $440 million Dawn mission to two giant asteroids that it had canceled 3 weeks earlier. Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, convinced an appeal panel that they have conquered formidable fiscal and technical problems. NASA expects to launch Dawn next summer, a year late, for its rendezvous beyond Mars.

NASA officials have also softened the blow of a 25% cut to the agency's $65 million astrobiology program. They will add back $30 million to allow funding this year of half the usual number of 3-year proposals. But President George W. Bush's 2007 request for the agency includes a 50% cut to the program from 2005 levels, and as one researcher noted, "we still have a pretty significant problem."




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)