NASA needs to go somewhere specific, not just talk about it, skeptical U.S. senators told the space agency chief Wednesday. President Barack Obama's proposed budget kills the previous administration's return-to-the-moon mission, sometimes nicknamed "Apollo on steroids." That leaves the space agency adrift without a goal or destination, senators and outside experts said at a Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee hearing, the first since Obama unveiled his new space plan this month. On top of that the nation's space shuttle fleet is only months away from long-planned retirement, an issue for senators from Florida, where NASA is a major employer. And while the new NASA plan includes extra money - $6 billion over five years - for private spaceships and developing new rocket technology, NASA shouldn't be just about spending, the senators said. It should be about John F. Kennedy-like vision.

Although it might seem like a headline from The Onion, the story's actually true. NASA's being forced to cut four million dollars from the Mars rover project. In order to meet that requirement, they'll have to put one rover, Spirit, to sleep — a "hibernation" period. The team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) will also have to put the other rover, Opportunity, on a diminished work cycle. But in actuality, they won't be cutting what Opportunity's doing — they'll just be spreading it out over a longer period of time.

NASA's emerging exploration plan will call for safely sending humans to Mars, possibly by the 2030s, and de-emphasize exploration of the moon, the agency's leader said Tuesday. “That is my personal vision,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “I am confident that, when I say humans on Mars is a goal for the nation, not just NASA, I'm saying that because I believe the president will back me up.” Bolden cited appearances set before congressional committees on Feb. 24 and 25 as a deadline for creating the “beginnings of a plan” for human exploration. At those hearings, Bolden said, he will be able only to give a range of dates for a Mars trip because scientific questions, such as mitigating radiation exposure and bone loss, remain unanswered. But he confidently said the 2030s, even the early 2030s, were viable if given a reasonable and sustained budget.

President Obama has decided to abandon plans to return to the moon and focus on a much more ambitious effort -- a manned trip to Mars -- instead. A return to the moon would have been possible within this decade, but going to Mars will require cooperation among space-faring nations and is likely 30 years, give or take, into the future. The president's new budget request provides US$3 billion over five years for "robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids," Bolden explained. "These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably." Also included in the proposed $3.8 trillion budget are funds for developing new engines, propellants, materials and combustion processes, as well as cross-cutting technologies such as communications, sensors and robotics, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said.

Defending a budget that effectively cancels a program that would have returned humans to the moon by 2020, NASA's top official said the space agency is looking beyond the lunar surface—to Mars. In a statement, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden noted that the $3.8 trillion federal budget proposal handed down earlier this week by President Obama provides $3 billion over five years in funds "for robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for human exploration of the moon, Mars, and nearby asteroids." Bolden said robotic exploration is an essential precondition for manned missions to Earth's closest celestial neighbors. "These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably," said Bolton.

"Apollo on steroids"? Forget about it. Back to the moon? Not anytime soon. NASA's new vision for space exploration is less specific on a destination, but more focused on making room for new technologies and new players in spaceflight. Some critics in Congress say they'll fight to keep some elements of the moon plan in place - but one of the most influential critics says it would be "very difficult" to change NASA's new course. In its budget request, released today, the White House is seeking $19 billion for the space agency during fiscal 2011, which is a slight increase from the current fiscal year's $18.7 billion. But over the next five years, NASA says it will have $6 billion more than previously planned, with most of that going to support technology development and commercialization. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters that the increase represented "an extraordinary show of support in these tough budgetary times."

NASA will probably not build an outpost on the moon as originally planned, the agency's acting administrator, Chris Scolese, told lawmakers on Wednesday. His comments also hinted that the agency is open to putting more emphasis on human missions to destinations like Mars or a near-Earth asteroid. NASA has been working towards returning astronauts to the moon by 2020 and building a permanent base there. But some space analysts and advocacy groups like the Planetary Society have urged the agency to cancel plans for a permanent moon base, carry out shorter moon missions instead, and focus on getting astronauts to Mars.

On the seven year anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the Obama administration will unveil NASA’s budget. According to inside sources the president has decided not to include a $ 1 billion boost to the space agency. As NASA struggles to accomplish the tenets of the Vision for Space Exploration this further lack of funding will at best only further delay plans to return astronauts to the moon before pushing on to Mars. The Augustine Commission in its report to the president stated that NASA could not develop the Ares I rocket, which would be used to carry the crew into orbit. To adequately do so would require the funding that NASA had been promised – but later denied. Alongside the Ares I there would also be developed the heavy-lift capable Ares V – which would be used to hoist key flight hardware, lunar landers and the necessary upper-stage. With this shortfall in funding the fate of both vehicles is placed into doubt.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will unveil the U.S. space agency's spending priorities for 2011 during a Feb. 1 announcement at NASA headquarters here, according to administration officials. President Barack Obama's 2011 budget request is expected to realign NASA's human spaceflight activities and investments to foster development of commercial systems capable of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. The request is not expected to include a much-sought after billion-dollar boost to aid NASA's funding-hampered human spaceflight efforts. NASA currently plans to retire its three aging space shuttles this year after five more missions. But plans to use the shuttle fleet's replacement – NASA's new Ares rockets and their Orion crew vehicles – for an eventual return to the moon are still in flux.

President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft. According to knowledgeable sources, the White House is convinced that scarce NASA funds would be better spent on a simpler heavy-lift vehicle that could be ready to fly as early as 2018. Meanwhile, European countries, Japan, and Canada would be asked to work on a lunar lander and modules for a moon base, saving the U.S. several billion dollars. And commercial companies would take over the job of getting supplies to the international space station.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised questions Wednesday about boosting NASA funding, in competition with other budget priorities, and pursuing a Mars trip. The California Democrat also said any boost in funding, as recommended by a recent commission, would have to be measured against other priorities to create jobs. “I, myself, if you are asking me personally, I have not been a big fan of manned expeditions to outer space, in terms of safety and cost,” Pelosi told reporters a roundtable on legislative accomplishments this year. “But people could make the case; technology is always changing.” President Barack Obama, who met Wednesday with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, is weighing how to support the agency. A recent report from the U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Commission recommended phasing in a $3 billion boost in funding in order to pursue spaceflight safely, but Obama hasn’t signaled what suggestions he will adopt.

The recently released report from the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (AKA: The Augustine Commission), Seeking a Human Space Program Worthy of a Great Nation, states that "A human landing and extended human presence on Mars stand prominently above all other opportunities for exploration. Mars is unquestionably the most scientifically interesting destination in the inner solar system. It possesses resources which can be used for life support and propellants. If humans are ever to live for long periods with intention of extended settlement on another planetary surface, it is likely to be on Mars." The Mars Society is in perfect agreement with this statement and we hope that NASA will pursue a program that will realize this goal as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, the Augustine Commission report then goes on to state that we are not ready to go to Mars with current technology and we can go nowhere in the next decade, even with the expenditure of over a hundred billion dollars. While challenging, sending humans to Mars is possible with current technological expertise and we could have humans on Mars in the 2020s.

To get to the moon and then eventually go on to Mars will take much more money and technology than the U.S. space program has now, according to a report released today by an independent panel convened, at White House request, under former aerospace executive Norman Augustine. The Augustine Commission made several recommendations today for NASA:

US ambitions for manned space exploration have hit a major hurdle in the wake of severe budget constraints, according to preliminary findings of a panel appointed by President Barack Obama. Reaching Mars was deemed too risky while returning to the Moon by 2020 was ruled out barring an additional three billion dollars per year to replace the retiring space shuttle fleet and build bigger rockets, according to the group led by Norm Augustine, a former CEO of US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. "Really, we've given the White House a dilemma. The space program we have today, the human space flight program, really isn't executable with the money we have," Augustine told PBS public television last week.

If you had to choose the subject of NASA's attention over the next decade, what would you pick? Would you want to push the space agency to go back to the moon? Would you want it to devote its budget toward a human mission to Mars? The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, a panel ordered to chart the future of the U.S. space program, is trying to narrow those possibilities. So far, the group has come up with several ideas for how NASA should focus its resources.

Forty years after astronauts first walked on the moon, NASA, the US space agency, is officially committed to a $35 billion (£22 billion) plan instituted by President George W. Bush to build the first of a new generation of manned rockets that can return to the planet by 2020. However, the new president has appointed an independent panel to review America's costly manned space programme, called Constellation, and make recommendations by the end of August. With NASA engineers now floating cut-rate rocket alternatives, some politicians and former astronauts fear that the 2020 deadline will be foiled by financial constraints.

In a move that reflects the uncertainty surrounding NASA's current strategy for replacing the space shuttle and returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020, House appropriators slashed by 16 percent the space agency's $4 billion request for manned space exploration in 2010. The proposed legislation, marked up June 4 by the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee, trims $483 million overall from U.S. President Barack Obama's $18.7 billion budget request for NASA next year. The $670 million cut to the 2010 manned exploration request would leave $3.21 billion, which is less than is available for the effort this year.

It's time to put your 21st century thinking cap because you've been invited to take part in a new study into why the U.S. has a space program. The new study "Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program" is looking for the public's view on the following questions: What's the future of human, robotic, commercial, and personal spaceflight? Is your life impacted in a meaningful way by the space program? What kind of emphasis should the space program represent in going forward? How can the country's civil, or non-military, space program address key national issues? Views - positive or negative - of the general public are welcomed. This study is sponsored exclusively by The National Academies, and it is not receiving any funds from government agencies or any other external sources. The assessment is a joint effort of the Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.

Getting into a shouting match with the HR rep is not exactly the best way to land a job. But according to the Orlando Sentinel, that's just what happened last week between NASA administrator Mike Griffin and Lori Garver, a member of Barack Obama's transition team who will help decide if Griffin keeps his post once the President-elect takes office. If the contretemps did occur, it could help doom not only the NASA chief's chances, but the space agency's ambitious plans to get Americans back to the moon.

With the fortunes of Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center now heavily tied to President Bush’s plan to send astronauts to the moon and Mars, the upcoming election has the center’s employees and supporters watching for hints of the direction either candidate might take the nation’s space program. So far, both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have staked out positions that sound hopeful for the once-faltering Glenn center, and for the overall American space effort. In unusual detail for a presidential campaign, each candidate has pledged support for the moon- Mars exploration goal. Obama and McCain have promised, in principle, to provide the billions it will take to build new spacecraft, establish a permanent moon base, and propel astronauts to the rusty, intriguing surface of Mars.

Sen. Barack Obama released a comprehensive space policy Saturday that endorsed sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020 as a possible precursor for going to Mars -- the first time he has committed to that goal -- and said the reach for the stars should be a U.S.-led international effort. "Human exploration beyond low-earth orbit should be a long-term goal and investment for all space-faring countries, with America in the lead," the policy paper said. The paper promises funding for an additional flight after the space shuttle's planned retirement in 2010 and to "expedite" development of a successor. But beyond promising funding to "minimize" the gap until a new rocket flies -- now not scheduled until 2015 -- the plan makes no specific financial commitment.

When Sen. John McCain comes to the Space Coast on Monday, he might not realize that his visit resulted from a year-long effort by members of the aerospace industry in Brevard County. Facing a loss of thousands of jobs when the space shuttle stops flying in 2010, county leaders last year mounted a far-reaching lobbying effort and used all their political contacts to elevate the future of America's human space flight program to a national issue. The diligence has begun to pay off, as both presidential candidates have made promises that Floridians plan to make sure they keep.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will send representatives to a space policy debate this week. The presidential candidates' representatives will meet Thursday to discuss how their administrations will fund, prioritize, and advance space policy over the next several years. "This will be a perfect opportunity for the campaigns to articulate their policies," Mars Society Executive Director Chris Carberry said in an announcement. "The next president will be in a unique position to move the space program forward. Space policy could also be key in the election; many of the 'space states' are too close to call in recent polls." McCain will send Apollo VII astronaut Walt Cunningham and Obama will send former NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver to speak on the candidates' behalf. The Mars Society will host the debate at the University Memorial Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Attendance is free and the event is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserved seating is available for groups. The debate will take place during the 11th Annual International Mars Society Convention, which begins Thursday and ends Aug. 17. During the convention, industry leaders will review the latest developments from the Phoenix Mars Lander and recent data from the Cassini-Huygens mission orbiting Saturn.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established 50 years ago today by the aptly named National Aeronautics and Space Act. NASA began operations on October 1, 1958, with a staff of 80 spread among four laboratories. The agency now consists of 15 facilities that employed more than 17,000 people in 2006, according to Best Places to Work. The agency's mission statement since 2006 has been "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."

One issue the presidential candidates are not saying much about is space exploration. But some scientists, military experts and intelligence analysts say the next president may well determine whether America keeps an edge in space. Last year, the United States managed 16 space launches; Russia had 22; China blasted off 10. Their space program is still behind, says Robert Zubrin, one of America's strongest proponents for Mars travel, but it is rocketing.

Next January will mark the fourth anniversary of President George W. Bush’s speech at NASA Headquarters that unveiled the Vision for Space Exploration, the long-term plan that gave the space agency a new direction, away from the space shuttle and space station and towards a human return to the Moon and, eventually, human missions to Mars. At that time the announcement drew comparisons to the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), the last major effort by a president to reshape the direction of NASA, with corresponding concerns that the Vision would meet a similar, unfortunate fate. Yet the Vision is alive and well today (despite some concerns about its implementation), while SEI had effectively been dead long before it could reach its fourth anniversary. What caused SEI to fail, and what lessons did its failure provide future initiatives, like the Vision? These are questions explored in depth by Thor Hogan’s history of SEI, Mars Wars. The book (which can be ordered for $15 from NASA’s web site or read online for free) is, at its core, a thorough history of the SEI.

Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, and Science recommended an increase of over $280 million above the requested level for NASA. However, within this budget markup, there is language that would prevent work on programs devoted to humans to Mars. According to a House Appropriations Committee press release, the markup language states that NASA cannot pursue “development or demonstration activity related exclusively to Human Exploration of Mars. NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests." THIS ANTI-MARS LANGUAGE MUST BE REMOVED! Otherwise, the program may turn into MOON ONLY program. We can't let that happen.

The choice to reduce science spending by $2 billion over the next five years is a last resort, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told concerned members of Congress on Thursday. But it's a necessary sacrifice to make sure the shuttles can safely fly enough missions to finish building the International Space Station before retirement in 2010, he said. The space agency delayed or canceled science projects only after making equally painful cuts -- about $1.5 billion worth -- to early work on new rockets, spaceships and other technology necessary to send astronauts back to the moon. One result of those cuts: the proposed shuttle replacement, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, may not be ready to fly astronauts until 2013 or 2014 rather than two years earlier as Griffin once hoped.

The U.S. Senate approved a $200 million budget increase for NASA Thursday, giving the U.S. space agency most of the funding it needs to get started on a new lunar exploration plan to be unveiled Monday. The NASA funding was approved as part of a $48.9 billion spending bill that also funds the Justice and Commerce Departments. Of that amount, NASA would receive $16.4 billion for 2006, about $60 million less than the agency requested but $200 million more than it had to spend this year.

The House Friday overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's vision to send man back to the moon and eventually on to Mars as it passed a bill to set NASA policy for the next two years. The bill passed 383-15 after a collegial debate in which lawmakers stressed their commitment to not just Bush's ambitious space exploration plans but also to traditional NASA programs such as science and aeronautics.

Michael Griffin didn�t mind it too much when U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay called him a �space nerd.� In fact, the new head of NASA seemed to relish in the nickname given to him last month on his first official visit to the Johnson Space Center. Just two months into his job as NASA administrator, Griffin has already made his mark. Management shake-ups have come quickly at the agency, which is often slow to change.

Things are looking up again at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans after a tumultuous 2� years. The future of the 832-acre production plant and its 2,100 employees looked bleak after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in February 2003.

NASA�s Mars program could undergo major alternation, driven by budgetary and technical issues, as well as science goals. �We�ve been getting inputs, advice, actions items�from the road mapping teams,� said Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. �Nothing is finalized at this point. There have been no final decisions made or, frankly, any interim decisions made as yet.�

President Bush proposed a $16.45 billion budget for NASA in 2006 this morning, a 2.4 percent increase over 2005's. The budget includes more than $4.5 billion for the space shuttle program, an increase of $366 million, mostly to cover the costs of the effort required to return the fleet to orbit this spring.

While NASA fared better than many federal agencies in U.S. President George W. Bush's 2006 budget request, the White House is not seeking as much money for the U.S. space agency as previously planned. The White House is seeking $16.45 billion for NASA in the 2006 budget. That's an increase of 2.4 percent over what the U.S. space agency has in its 2005 budget, but still about $500 million less than what the agency had been expecting.

Without a separate vote or even a debate, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has managed to deliver to a delighted NASA enough money to forge ahead on a plan that would reshape U.S. space policy for decades to come. President Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration," which would send humans to the moon and eventually to Mars, got a skeptical reception in January and was left for dead in midsummer, but it made a stunning last-minute comeback when DeLay delivered NASA's full $16.2 billion budget request as part of the omnibus $388 billion spending bill passed Nov. 20, 2004

When the history of this lame duck Congress is written, historians may make little notes about the dustup over intelligence reform. However, their long memories are likely to record that, by funding the President's space initiative, this was a lame duck that soared. The $16.2 billion that Congress authorized for NASA, a five percent increase in its budget, made it official that mankind is headed outwards again -- to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. The House also passed a revised commercial space bill, which just a short time ago, was pronounced deader than Tom Daschle's political career.

With a green light from Congress, NASA is moving swiftly to carry out President Bush's ambitious plan to return robots and humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. The United States is also seeking foreign partners for the hugely expensive project, hoping to save money and avoid wasteful duplication. Space officials from 17 countries, including China, Russia, Japan and much of Europe, participated in a planning workshop in Washington last week. Representatives from each nation said they intend to participate in at least the planning phase.

Shifting NASA priorities toward risky, expensive missions to the moon and Mars will mean neglecting the most promising space science efforts, states the American Physical Society (APS) Special Committee on NASA Funding for Astrophysics, in a report released today. The committee points out that the total cost of NASA's ill-defined Moon-Mars initiative is unknown as yet, but is likely to be a substantial drain on NASA resources. As currently envisioned, the initiative will rely on human astronauts who will establish a base on the moon and subsequently travel to Mars. The program is in contrast to recent, highly successful NASA missions, including the Hubble Space telescope, the Mars Rover, and Explorer missions, which have revolutionized our understanding of the universe while relying on comparatively cheap, unmanned and robotic instruments. It is likely that such programs will have to be scaled back or eliminated in the wake of much more expensive and dangerous manned space exploration, according to the committee.

The moon-Mars mission proposed by President Bush in January -- one we have strongly supported as the key to unimaginable technological progress -- is in danger of starvation in Congress. That should be ringing alarm bells for the entire Florida delegation, including Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson and Bob Graham, and local GOP Representatives Dave Weldon and Tom Feeney. With the short lame-duck session under way this week, they and their state colleagues must get to work to make sure NASA is assured all the money needed to get the potentially historic venture under way.

On the eve of the Presidential election, Americans continue to support human space flight and endorse the Space Exploration plan to return to the Moon and to Mars, but they also question the relationship of NASA to its constituents. A comprehensive, in-depth study by Dittmar Associates aimed at understanding public perceptions of NASA and particularly the Space Exploration Program reveals that Americans continue to support human space flight, with 69% supporting Space Exploration and 26% opposed.

While a team of aerospace engineers takes aim this week on the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition for privately developed suborbital spaceflight, a Nevada millionaire is planning an even loftier contest. Robert Bigelow, chief of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, is apparently setting higher goals for private spaceflight endeavors with America's Space Prize, a $50 million race to build an orbital vehicle capable of carrying up to seven astronauts to an orbital outpost by the end of the decade, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology. Bigelow told Aviation Week that not only would Space Prize winners secure the $50 million purse, half of which he's putting up himself, but also snag options to service inflatable space habitats under development by Bigelow Aerospace.

The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.

The cuts to NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget request contained in the House Appropriations Committee's NASA spending bill effectively would halt the agency's plans to develop a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and achieve new breakthroughs in in-space propulsion, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "We can't do this at the levels that they've contemplated," O'Keefe told Senate lawmakers at a Sept. 8, 2004 hearing.

President George W. Bush's new space exploration plan has received a burst of hard-core support in Congress, aimed at blocking any attempt to cut its funding, and backed up by a rare veto threat from the president himself. This development has emerged in the wake of action by a House appropriations subcommittee last week, which cut the administration's NASA budget request for fiscal year 2005 by more than $1 billion. Presidential veto threats have been a rarity in the Bush White House. Also, no U.S. president has ever vetoed a spending bill because it contained too little money for space programs.

John Kerry brought two astronauts with him to campaign at the Kennedy Space Center. He strolled among the rocket relics. And he recalled a day when those rockets were the tools a dedicated army of Americans used to do what then seemed impossible. But in the heart of a community where more than 20,000 people work on space programs, the Democrats' candidate for president met with a roomful of voters without commenting on President Bush's proposal to send astronauts to the moon and Mars or offering a specific vision of his own for exploring space.

Of course, the only comments from a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 that have come to have any real relevance to the future progress of Bush's new space policy (should Bush lose) are those of John Kerry, the Democratic Party's 2004 nominee. The day after Bush's speech, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Kerry as saying, "Rather than sending Americans to Mars or the Moon right now, these people would be better off trying to figure out how to get Americans back from Iraq."

The White House has threatened to veto a spending bill that would deny NASA the funding it is counting on to get started on a new space exploration agenda next year. The veto threat was issued after the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to cut President George W. Bush�s 2005 budget request for NASA by $1.1 billion, a move that would leave the space agency with $229 million less than it has this year.

Funds for President George W. Bush's plan to use the moon as a base for possible manned missions to Mars were cut by more than half next year in a bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration would get $15.1 billion under the bill, which cuts $538 million from Bush's plan to spend $910 million on the Mars proposal in the 2005 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2004.

What happens when worlds collide? NASA will find out next month � not by launching an interplanetary probe, but by inviting aerospace entrepreneurs to help flesh out the agency's plan to reward feats on the final frontier. The June 15-16 workshop in Washington will focus on drawing up NASA's first batch of "Centennial Challenges" � government-funded competitions that would encourage non-governmental teams to develop technologies vital to NASA's exploration initiative. For example, a better astronaut glove might earn its developers $1 million, while the first team to put a privately funded lander on the moon could win $20 million.

Mistaken as gospel and spread around the country by countless news outlets outside of Brevard County, an oft-quoted but flawed trillion-dollar cost estimate is coloring public opinion on President Bush's plan to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020, and it's swaying election-year political debates. A more realistic estimate: $229 billion over the next 16 years.

In the 1983 movie, "The Right Stuff," astronaut Gordo Cooper points toward a space capsule and asks a NASA scientist, "Do you know what makes this bird go up?" Cooper answers his own question: "Funding makes this bird go up!" At which point, astronaut Gus Grissom chimes in: "No bucks? No 'Buck Rogers!'" That alleged conversation took place more than four decades ago, during the height of the space race with the Soviet Union. Today, the same refrain applies. Without funding from Congress, no U.S. spaceship will blast off for anywhere.

Overall, this should be a relatively good time for NASA. While the agency is still recovering from the Columbia accident last year and its aftermath, NASA has had its share of good news. Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, are an unquestioned success, providing scientists with the strongest evidence to date that Mars once had liquid water, an essential condition for supporting life.

The prospect of sending astronauts to Mars poses scientific challenges, but just as daunting are the political and economic obstacles to fulfilling the dream of interplanetary travel. Two months after President Bush revealed his initiative to return to the moon and eventually travel to Mars, the idea is still floating in space, apparently lacking the political gravity to attract much congressional support.

I am amazed at how much money we are spending to send machines to space such as the Mars rovers. Scientists are studying a rock to see if there was once water on the planet at a cost of $820 million.

Some key lawmakers expressed reservations Wednesday about President Bush's new space mission, questioning the cost and benefits of manned travel to the moon and Mars. Leaders of the House Science Committee said they were not yet prepared to endorse a plan when there are so many unanswered questions about its price tag, affordability and impact on NASA science and aeronautics programs.

President George Bush's ambitious space exploration initiative is getting mixed reviews in Congress as lawmakers sifting through details of a NASA spending plan question how to pay for a program that could cost between $30 million and $55 billion in its initial phase.

Plans to return man to the moon, build advanced spacecraft and eventually land on Mars may be in trouble before the first spaceship blueprints are drafted, a top NASA official said during a meeting in Huntsville on Tuesday. Domestic needs and wartime spending might force Congress to delay funding for President Bush's plan to return to the moon, NASA Comptroller Steve Isakowitz told members of the NASA Advisory Council, gathered at Marshall Space Flight Center for their quarterly meeting.

The deputy administrator of NASA was in Huntsville Tuesday. He's assessing the city as a potential site for a new NASA financial center. 500 jobs are on the line. Huntsville's up against 5 other cities for NASA's 'Shared Services Center.' Governor Riley, Congressman Cramer, and local leaders met with Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory yesterday, trying to land this big fish. The center could have a 50-million dollar impact on north Alabama.

Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today called for a tripling of NASA's budget. Kucinich, co-sponsor of the Space Exploration Act of 2003, said the current budget for NASA "is far from adequate. Our shuttle fleet is based on 30-year old technology and this is only because of a lack of funding. Although the shuttle program requires $4 billion a year to operate, NASA has been forced to operate the shuttle with a budget of only $3 billion a year." Kucinich issued a far-reaching statement on the importance of the space program a day before he arrives in Florida Monday for two days of campaigning. Additional funding for space exploration and new technologies "is in our national interest," he said.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX: MDA) announced today that subsidiary, MD Robotics, has won a $1.5 million CDN ExoMars Mission contract from the European Space Agency. The prime contract is one of two parallel Phase A studies to define a robotic rover and its science payload that will be sent to the Red Planet in 2009.

EADS Space has been awarded a EUR900k study by ESA to carry out the first definition of a Rover to explore the Martian surface and search for life. The study led by EADS Astrium is part of ESA's Aurora programme that aims to one day put a European astronaut on Mars.

The president's new marching orders for NASA to leave low-Earth orbit and return to outer space exploration promises to be a bonanza for robotic missions to Mars, which not only will continue the search for clues to past life, but also pave the way for human expeditions to the Red Planet.

NASA unveiled its budget request to Congress Tuesday with the release of two companion documents: the "Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Estimates" and "The Vision for Space Exploration," a framework for exploration of the solar system and beyond.

Forget about spending much time on the moon. President Bush's $16.2 billion NASA budget proposal envisions annual lunar missions, by humans and robots, as mere steppingstones to exploring Mars and beyond. "This is not about sending humans back to the moon," NASA Comptroller Steve Isakowitz said, showing a computer-aided presentation with "Humans to the Moon" in a circle with a red slanted line through it. "The reason we're going to the moon is because we don't know today how to go to Mars," he said. "We're going to be using the moon first and foremost as a test bed to prepare the way for things we know humans could do of great value on Mars."

A trillion dollars to send astronauts to Mars? If such claims are valid, it's no wonder that the public might waver in its general support for space exploration. But despite the repeated use of this figure in the news media, the actual cost is expected to be much, much less. Engineering cost analysis that has worked in the past suggests that the actual cost of Bush's proposals will be only a fifth to a tenth as great as the frightening numbers being waved around. The slowly mounting NASA allocations, as shown on budget proposals, are in line with these estimates.

In the months preceding U.S. President George W. Bush�s decision to chart a new course for the U.S. space program, NASA -- like nearly all U.S. federal agencies -- found itself facing flat budgets �as far as they eye could see,� NASA Administrator Sean O�Keefe said today. But as a result of the president�s decision to back a new vision and direction for NASA, the space agency not only avoided what would have amounted to an $11 billion cut, it also became one of the few federal agencies to secure a presidential promise of increasing funding in the years ahead.

In a presentation now being delivered to NASA employees across the country, the space agency is providing details of how it plans to implement the broad new space goals announced by President Bush last week. The presentation, a copy of which was obtained by MSNBC.com, includes a list of guiding principles, specific program plans and details of budgetary rearrangements.

U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking to reporters Tuesday in Mexico, said that his proposal for sending astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars would be affordable. A transcript of the president's remarks was posted to the White House website. During a photo opportunity with Canada�s new prime minister, Paul Martin, Bush was asked by reporters if the United States could afford a major shift in its space program. Bush said, �Yes, I�ll be saying that tomorrow.�

President Bush will seek to boost NASA�s budget by $1 billion over five years to help pay for his plan to put a base on the moon and to mount a manned expedition to Mars later in the century, a senior administration official told The Associated Press Tuesday.

A bipartisan group of about two dozen senators concerned with NASA's future last month demanded the White House articulate "a bold and coherent national mission" for the space program. The White House now appears poised to deliver, possibly announcing on Wednesday a major space initiative involving a return to the moon or even a landing on Mars.

Since last spring, the Bush administration has been conducting a confidential effort to establish a dramatic new goal for the nation's civil space program, perhaps rivaling President John F. Kennedy's call to place a U.S. astronaut on the moon before the end of the 1960s, sources told United Press International. Only a few administration insiders have been involved, with Vice President Dick Cheney heading the effort, said sources, who requested anonymity. Though some details have leaked out -- most notably reports Wednesday and Thursday that President George W. Bush will call for returning Americans to the moon -- sources insist no final decisions have been made. Instead, the president is reviewing a list of alternative goals -- some of them more practical than dramatic -- that must conform to a pair of overriding directives: Any option must be achievable within a reasonable period of time, and it must not require any major new federal spending.

President Bush has not decided on his vision for the future of human spaceflight, the White House said Thursday, shooting down reports that an announcement was imminent on plans to return to the moon and send explorers to Mars. "It would be premature to get into any speculation about our space policy," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at his daily briefing. "It has been, and continues to be, under review. There are no plans for any policy announcements in the immediate future, and that would include any upcoming speeches."

In January voters in New Hampshire will cast ballots for the Democratic candidate they feel would best hold the office of the presidency. The eventual winner of the nationwide nomination process will face President Bush next November. Democratic candidate and former Vermont governor Howard Dean was online to take your questions Thursday, Nov. 6 at 10:15 a.m. ET on the campaign and his vision for the United States.

NASA Admin. Sean O'Keefe & CAIB Chairman Harold Gehman testify on the future of NASA before the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Cmte.

Congress recently initiated the Space Power Caucus after discussions with Peter Teets, the undersecretary of the Air Force, because the time is right to get the message out that space is critical to this nation's future, both on the battlefield and in industry.

The future of flight in space possesses as many question marks as there are celestial orbs to explore. Some scientists and engineers discuss colonizing Mars while others would rather concentrate on unmanned space flight, but experts do agree that it depends largely upon how much money taxpayers want to invest in the missions.

After today's House Science Committee hearing on returning the Space Shuttle to flight, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson re-introduced his Space Exploration Act. The goals established by the Space Exploration Act of 2003 are sequenced in terms of increasing difficulty and complexity. Achieving the earlier goals will provide the capabilities needed for humans to explore other parts of the inner solar system while supporting the nation's scientific objectives.

The United States is sending two robotic probes to Mars to study the planet's surface. But whatever happened to a manned mission to the Red Planet, an idea that seemed almost a certainty a generation ago?

Presidential campaign buffs will tell you the successful candidate usually is the one with the most coherent message, the biggest bank account or the greatest physical presence. For Kingston resident and 2004 presidential aspirant Fern Penna, two out of three isn't bad. "We are taking a total approach," he said recently. "We have concrete policies to fix everything at once." These policies are largely based on a plan to turn the Unites States into a nation of space explorers. If elected, Penna promises to put a man on Mars, build spacecraft to catch meteors that could be harvested for minerals and begin mining operations on the moon.

NASA�s Space and Earth science enterprises are sowing the technological seeds for opening up new vistas on the universe and improving the understanding of the home planet. For space science, the name of the game is transit speed, power and bandwidth. In the decade ahead, NASA�s largest technology investment in the name of science is expected to be in the field of nuclear power and propulsion.

The shuttle Columbia explosion will bring needed scrutiny to the nation's space policy, lawmakers and space advocates said Saturday. "The American people have been lulled into a false sense of security by the effectiveness and diligence of our NASA team," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. "The space program has been on the back burner for the last 10 years for our political leadership."

NASA�s budget request for 2004 -- finalized weeks before the launch of Columbia�s fatal mission and released without fanfare today -- seeks a $700 million increase for the space shuttle program. The increase is part of a $15.469 billion budget request NASA and the White House drew up under different assumptions than they face today. The budget represents a $469 million increase over NASA�s 2003 request and would fund several new initiatives, including efforts to send a nuclear probe to Jupiter and place a laser telecommunications satellite in orbit around Mars.

NASA is accelerating its chase of advanced nuclear power systems that could allow spacecraft to travel deeper into space faster and cheaper. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and other agency officials say the White House has approved a substantial budget increase for the $1 billion Nuclear Systems Initiative introduced last year. In about a week, when President Bush unveils his 2004 budget, the dollars invested in the renamed Project Prometheus will be more, though NASA won't say how much. "We are looking to significantly enhance that effort, so stay tuned," O'Keefe said. "We are looking to very specific mission objectives."

NASA has awarded the California Institute of Technology a new five-year contract to manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is estimated the contract will cover more than $8 billion worth of work. The contract extends for five years the JPL agreement between Caltech and NASA for management of JPL beyond its current expiration date of Sept. 30, 2003. The NASA contract includes a new provision that, based on performance reviews, may extend the contract period of performance for up to an additional five years.

Five billion dollars is a lot of money. A line of dollar bills five billion long would reach to the moon and back. Finding that you have a $5 billion budget shortfall�as NASA, America's space agency, did last year�is therefore no mean feat. Cash crunches are nothing new at NASA, but this one is more serious. In the past, when the agency has waved its begging-bowl before American politicians, the bowl has usually been filled. This time, neither President George Bush nor Congress is interested in letting NASA spend its way out of its problems. A true crisis has finally arrived. And, a year ago, Mr Bush appointed Sean O'Keefe, a self-professed �bean-counter�, to deal with it.

The French participation in a long-term Mars-exploration program remains in doubt following budget cuts at its space agency, CNES, and pending a government review of space-spending priorities. What is clear is that CNES's Premier Mars mission, designed to include a Mars-orbiting satellite and four 18-kilogram landers to study the Martian surface and subsuface, will be substantially scaled back. The year-2007 launch date likely will slip to 2009. "We are looking for significant cost reductions to Premier, and a simplification of the mission," said Jean-Louis Counil, principal scientists for Mars exploration at CNES. "Our top priority remains the landers.

U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX) introduced bipartisan legislation today to establish a series of goals to advance the nation�s human space flight program over the next twenty years. Among the goals specified in the bill, the eight-year goal would require the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to libration points in space, which could be used to assemble large-scale scientific observatories far beyond low Earth orbit. The twenty-year goal would require development of a reusable vehicle to carry humans to and from Martian orbit, development of a human occupied research facility on one of the moons of Mars, and development of a reusable vehicle to carry astronauts from Martian orbit to Mars and back. The bill will allow the best, most innovative mission concepts to compete. The bill also sets tough requirements for periodic independent cost and schedule reviews to ensure that the exploration initiative is properly managed.

The United States will lose its leading role in space unless it spends more money for research and development and for recruiting young engineers, government, military and industry officials said on Tuesday. NASA and the U.S. military also needed to work more closely to make the best use of scarce resources, the officials told the 12-member Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The congressionally mandated panel, which is due to make policy recommendations to Congress and President Bush by Nov. 27, is holding a series of meetings aimed at assessing the overall health of the aerospace industry. Tidal McCoy, chairman of the Space Transportation Association, told the panel that NASA's $15.1 billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2003 was "a going-out-of-business budget for any hope of advanced space goals."

An advisory group to NASA urges the space agency to re-think its planetary exploration agenda, particularly how best to probe Europa for possible evidence of an ocean and advance Mars science investigations. The group also advises NASA to stay-the-course and fly the now-cancelled New Horizons mission to explore Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects. In a March 31 letter to NASA officials, the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee (SSES) of the Space Science Advisory Committee (SscAC) reviewed the overall health of the space agency's present and future planetary plans. The SSES membership is comprised of leading space scientists and is chaired by Michael Drake, head of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson. Drake authored the letter to NASA, spelling out the advisory group's views.

Americans are not enthusiastic about an ambitious space program and would cut NASA's budget before other critical national priorities, an Orlando Sentinel poll shows. The survey found little support for a long-discussed manned mission to Mars and revealed a general sentiment favoring a space program that yields practical research benefits, said Thomas Riehle, president of Ipsos-Reid U.S. Public Affairs, which conducted the national poll for the Sentinel.

A public survey conducted for NASA shows overwhelming support for Mars missions. Of the more than 54,000 people who responded to the online survey run by the Planetary Society, more than 90 percent ranked Mars exploration among the top five missions priorities. The survey results will be provided to National Research Council, which at NASA's request is preparing a set of recommendations to guide the space agency's spending on solar system exploration over the next decade.

NASA will delay deep-space missions and slash other program spending to offset a $500 million shortfall over five years caused by problems with a once-heralded contract to combine and privatize space operations. The contract combines all data collection and communications that support satellites, probes to other planets and human spaceflight. Written in 1998, the Consolidated Space Operations Contract was supposed to save NASA $1.4 billion over 10 years. But the projected savings were based on poor assumptions and overly ambitious plans, NASA managers now acknowledge. The savings didn't materialize. Making matters worse, NASA leaders spent money they thought they had saved on satellites that added to the contract's cost. As a result, all missions to Mars scheduled after 2007 may be pushed back.

The White House at 6 p.m. made official what people throughout the space community had been buzzing about all day. U.S. President George Bush intends to nominate Sean O'Keefe, the deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget to be the next NASA Administrator. O'Keefe has been an instrumental figure in the White House's attempts to bring the International Space Station budget under control. After determining that the program would exceed its budget by $5 billion over the next five years, OMB cut NASA's request for funding major future work on the station. The cuts included money for the construction of new crew quarters and the development of a crew rescue vehicle capable of getting seven astronauts off of the orbiting laboratory in an emergency.

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said today he will depart November 17 satisfied and proud that the U.S. space agency launched so many spacecraft during his tenure. "NASA is alive!" Goldin, the agency�s longest-serving administrator, said in a telephone interview. He noted that NASA had 60 spacecraft launched and planned during his tenure and said his proudest moment was the in-orbit repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. "We opened up the universe," he said. Goldin said his biggest disappointment is not going to Mars. "My life will be complete when an astronaut sets foot on Mars," Goldin said. "I want to be associated with it in some way."

NASA is expected to announce as early as October how it will deal with a newly mandated 5 percent budget cut, while rumblings of potentially deeper budget woes have begun to surface in the space community as the nation mobilizes its military in the wake of the September 11 terrorist strikes on American soil. The directive to cut the budget by 5 percent was issued by the White House on September 10. Decisions about possible cutbacks to the Mars exploration program and other cost savings may come as early as October and almost surely by the end of the year.

Nigeria is planning to spend N9 billion ($US25.4 million) over the next three years implementing the nation's National Space Policy and Programme. The initative reported by This Day was announced July 27 by the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun. Isoun said the Nigerian government had to embark on the programme in realisation of the fact that space technology reflected the power of a nation, and that Nigeria as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space [COPUOS] was committed to the ideal that the exploration and use of outer space should be carried out for peaceful purposes.

An orbital test flight of a prototype crew rescue ship and technology development for human missions to Mars face cancellation as NASA continues a bid to absorb an anticipated $4 billion International Space Station cost overrun, agency officials said Friday. A slate of technology development efforts being carried out at NASA's Johnson Space Center as precursors to human expeditions to Mars also would be axed under the proposal.

Space station Alpha, increased robotic exploration and the Space Launch Initiative all will get humans to Mars faster than relatively small studies and planning, according to NASA chief Dan Goldin. In his recent justification of why human exploration studies of the Red Planet are being shut down, Goldin said the work was minor compared to the multibillion-dollar efforts the agency has undertaken. "I think this will get us to Mars faster because when you try and do too much, you do too little," Goldin said. "And getting the space station done and getting it complete and getting the assembly done, and getting the biomedical research done, is of a much higher priority than the dogs and cats of the small programs we were doing on getting ready for Mars."

In the past week, Dr. Robert Zubrin, with the help of Joe Webster and Chris Carberry, authored testimony that was submitted to the United States Senate VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, regarding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget for FY 2002 (the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee has jurisdiction over NASA's budget). In the testimony, Dr. Zubrin explains to Congress why our Nation should commit at least one percent of NASA's budget (about $140 million) to a program that would investigate technologies that will be necessary to send humans to Mars. In addition to the VA-HUD Subcommittee, we will be sending copies of this testimony to numerous other members of Congress as well as the Bush Administration.

Space analysts, who have asked since January who President Bush would pick to head NASA, now wonder whether anyone wants the job. A new NASA chief would work for an administration that favors military uses of space and offers no prospects for an increased budget during the next four years. The White House is known to favor an administrator from the private sector, but salary could be a complication as the job pays markedly less than those held by aerospace industry executives. Most experts speculate the post is best suited to someone who has significant savings and political aspirations.

President Bush laid out a $14.5 billion NASA budget that includes a decrease in space station funding, and increases for shuttle upgrades and robotic Mars exploration...In addition to enhanced probes every two years for the rest of the decade, the recommendation would pay for a mission to bring back martian soil samples in 2011, three years ahead of schedule.

Last week�s release of President Bush�s budget blueprint for fiscal year 2002 calls for new monies to make NASA�s Mars exploration program "more robust". How that term translates within NASA�s $14.5 billion proposed budget will be made known early next month when a detailed space agency budget is issued. As now hazily sketched out, President Bush�s budget for the space agency bolsters future robotic surveys of the Red Planet. But to what extent a boost in Mars monies swamps out other space science efforts is not known.

NASA needed to learn how to manage its multi-billion-dollar budget better and recent disasters, including the loss of two expeditions to Mars, were part of the price we pay for space exploration, President Clinton said in an interview to be published on Friday. The "faster, better, cheaper" policy, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration now admits probably cut things a bit too close, was a necessary discipline, Clinton said in an interview with the magazine Science marking the end of his eight-year administration.

A number of American government and industry officials are seeking basic changes in the way Congress, the Pentagon and the White House oversee U.S. space activity. And they want these changes to be a high priority when the new American president and Congress take office in January.

Former Space Shuttle payload specialist Democrat Bill Nelson defeated Republican Representative Bill McCollum on Tuesday for the Senate seat from Florida. In August, Nelson told Florida Today that he would make a piloted mission to Mars a legislative priority. "In my lifetime, what I want to see is a mission from Planet Earth to Planet Mars with an international crew that returns safely," Nelson told the newspaper. "I think we can do that. We have the technology, we just have to have the will to do."

Al Gore and George W. Bush recently answered a questionnaire concerning their views on various aspects of Science. In the question concerning space policy, Bush gives a detailed answer concerning Mars, Gore ignores Mars.

The U.S. House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $28.8 billion, two-year spending plan that limits further U.S. costs for the International Space Station (ISS) and seeks to reform the much-maligned station partnership with Russia. Lawmakers passed the bill 399 to 17, providing a blueprint for congressional spending on space in the next two fiscal years. The bill offers $14.2 billion in 2001 and $14.6 billion in 2002 and increases funding for space science and aeronautics.

Democratic Senate candidate Bill Nelson said Tuesday if Florida voters send him to Washington, D.C., he will make a manned mission to Mars among his legislative priorities. "In my lifetime, what I want to see is a mission from planet Earth to planet Mars with an international crew that returns safely," said Nelson, 57, who is at the Democratic convention promoting his candidacy. "I think we can do that. We have the technology. We just have to have the will to do."

America's space program is stranded in Earth orbit, operating costly space-shuttle and space-station projects that go round and round, and nowhere fast, a panel of space experts said Friday, August 11. Dismayed by the lack of progress in human exploration of space is Chris McKay, a NASA space scientist at the Ames Research Center, near San Francisco, California. "It's kind of puzzling that since 1969, we haven't really gone beyond the moon, we being humans," McKay told an audience of 800 on Friday at the Third International Mars Society Convention.

Proposed budgets for new NASA space exploration missions are rising as much as 40 percent in the aftermath of back-to-back Mars failures and the agency is considering canceling some projects, a key administrator said Thursday.

A few items get the most attention - it's abortion ad infinitum, education everywhere. Yet Republicans, in their newly minted platform, spare a thought for trucks, American Samoa, and Pennsylvania Avenue. They even looked to the heavens and found a plank: "We will ensure that this Nation can expand our knowledge of the universe, and with the support of the American people, continue the exploration of Mars and the rest of the solar system."

Men are more than twice as likely as women to support greater funding for the U.S. space program, according to a new poll of 640 New Yorkers conducted by the Siena Research Institute. One in four men said that the government spends too little money on the space program, while about one in 10 women said the same. In another indication of a gender gap, 59 percent of women said the United States should not pursue the possibility of sending humans to Mars, with only 40 percent of men saying that.

Space exploration may be the final frontier of the 2000 presidential contest: Mars missions, space stations and NASA have been relatively untouched by either candidate or the talking heads on television talk shows. Until now. Advisors to Al Gore and George W. Bush, at a Capitol Hill roundtable held by Women in Aerospace, spelled out the presumed nominees� vision for space and aeronautics in what was billed as the first public discussion of space policy under the next administration.

They plan to visit Mars, Mercury, even Jupiter's icy moon Europa, but the world's space scientists acknowledged Tuesday they will have to do it on a budget. Influenced by NASA's controversial "cheaper-faster-better" philosophy, astronomers gathered for a meeting on low-cost missions around the solar system where the presentations occasionally sounded more like management-speak than science.

NASA may have to ask for more money than was included in its $14 billion budget request for fiscal 2001, space agency Administrator Dan Goldin admitted Thursday. An outside panel reviewing NASA's disastrous last two Mars missions also concluded the programs were underfunded by 30 percent, so NASA needs to find more money for similar missions to make sure they're not shortchanged.

Incensed by a report released March 28 detailing the reasons behind the loss of NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL), Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and other members of Congress asked the agency to release all relevant tests conducted on the craft's propulsion system.

Marshall Space Flight Center is dreaming of building new spacecraft, but it may be in for a rude awakening if a budget being prepared by congressional Republicans becomes law.

President Clinton will ask Congress next month for a healthy boost in NASA's budget for 2001, and the agency's space science office in particular can look forward to White House support for more money in the coming fiscal year, according to administration officials.

Now that NASA officials have shaken the New Year confetti out of their hair, they face the difficult task of reviving two deeply troubled programs on which the agency's future rests: The International Space Station and the exploration of Mars. The projects dominate the nation's space agenda, and the extent to which NASA succeeds or fails in restoring confidence in them will determine its support in Congress and with the American public.

NASA's achievements in 1999 extended from terrestrial airport runways to extrasolar planets and addressed concerns ranging from the environmental to the cosmological. Here are our picks for the top 10 NASA stories this year.

Bad luck or bad management? That's the question many Americans - including some members of Congress - are asking about the failures and setbacks plaguing the nation's space program. And no wonder.

Members of Congress who play a key role in NASA's budget remained optimistic Saturday that all was not lost with Mars Polar Lander. But they added the agency needs a successful mission after the failure of Mars Climate Orbiter less than three months ago, a failure caused by an embarrassing mix-up in mathematics that sent it on a suicide course.

The NASA budget cuts approved by a House panel Monday would require the space agency to shut down two space centers, Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday.

A round of steep budget cuts applied to the NASA Fiscal Year 2000 budget Monday would kill the unmanned Mars exploration program that would send robots to the red planet before humans, and a wide range of other, advanced robotic missions to explore space.

On July 26, the VA, HUD and Independent Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved a budget that funds NASA at $1.3 billion less than the President's recommended budget.

The House VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Subcommittee this evening voted to slash $1.3 billion from NASA�s FY 2000 budget, which could cripple the agency and force the termination of many critical space science missions.