NASA Sacrifices Hubble, JIMO To Focus on Moon-Mars Vision

摘要

NASA's 2006 budget proposal would keep the U.S. space agency's return to the Moon on track but cancel a nuclear-powered mission to explore Jupiter's moons and preclude any attempt to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The $2.5 trillion budget proposal the White House sent to Congress Feb. 7 includes $16.45 billion for NASA — a 2.4 percent increase over 2005 — at a time when many federal agencies are facing flat or declining budgets. NASA also fared better than most federal agcncies last year when the White House requested a 5.6 percent increase for the agency for 2005 to help jump-start a space exploration strategy that entails building new spaceships and robotic spacecraft in preparation for returning to the Moon by 2020 for extended stays.