Culberson Pledges Protection for Lunar Orbiter, Mars Rover Missions

摘要

The chairman of the subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee that funds NASA said March 17 that he would protect two NASA planetary missions whose futures were placed in jeopardy by the administration's fiscal year 2016 budget request. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), chairman of the Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee, said at a Space Transportation Association event here that he opposed a move by NASA to zero out funding for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Mars rover Opportunity missions in its 2016 budget request. "You shouldn't lose a moment's sleep or one heartbeat's worth of worry" about that aspect of the budget request, Culberson said. "We will absolutely make sure that they're taken care of and funded."