Launch Costs Could Put a Damper on NASA Earth Science Missions

摘要

Nasa's Earth Science Division will be able to launch two missions per year under its cur-rent budget outlook if the agency can find reliable, affordable rides into orbit for those spacecraft, said Michael Freilich, the division's director. But Freilich acknowledged that is a big if, explaining that rising launch costs make "one or two" missions a year more likely. In light of recent launch failures, NASA Earth science officials are "carving money out of our budget for more expensive but hopefully more reliable launch vehicles," Freilich said Dec. 6 during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union here.