On Sat, 21 Jul 2001 16:01:10 Bruce Moomaw wrote: > >Alan Stern has confirmed the decision made by the Senate's space >subcommittee to try to rescue the Pluto 2004 mission: "The Senate bill will >(in present form) fund an Outer Planets Program line, make PKB [Pluto/Kuiper >Belt] its first mission, ask NASA to consider competing Europa Orbiter the >same way, and set aside money to begin PKB at the start of Fiscal Year 2002. >I do not know when the full Senate Appropriations Committee will take this >up, nor when the House-Senate conference will be... My gut feeling is that >the only thing standing between us and a funded PKB project now is the >House-Senate conference. What an amazing 9 months it's been since Pluto >Express' cancellation." He also reports that the Solar System Exploration >Subcommittee -- which was meeting in Washington when the news came -- broke >into applause. > >Judging from a note on NASA Watch, this was -- as I suspected -- largely the >work of Sen. Mikulski, who lambasted NASA for allowing "overrun after >overrun after overrun" on the Space Station at the expense of NASA's other >spending, as a result of "a culture of overindulgence". Th:e Senate >subcommittee also placed much sharper borders on the additional amount of >funding allowed for the Station than the House has done. (More details on >that shortly.) > Bruce, Great news about Pluto! But I guess we've al been waiting for news about a manned jouney to Mars. Wasn't Dubya supposed to annouce such a journey on july 20th? All I heard was the sound of silence... So, is there any news? Kind regards, Gert van den Heuvel Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/