"As the administration slashes spending on science, NASA is running low on new missions."
"There is a fully tenured NASA spacecraft named Mars Odyssey that has been faithfully orbiting the Red Planet since October 2001. It has made more than 100,000 spins around Mars. No spacecraft has orbited a distant planet for so long.
Odyssey has a few old-age issues, including running low on the fuel for thrusters that help it point in the right direction. But it works, beaming data about Mars and images of the surface back to Earth. As a side hustle, it has served as a communication relay for NASA’s Mars rovers.
What it can’t do is control the budgetary process in Washington. Mars Odyssey is one of many NASA science missions targeted for termination or major cuts in President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request to Congress."
Joel Achenbach reports for the Washington Post July 8, 2025.
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