Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said in a statement. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This funding agreement is a step in the right direction to ensure that California continues to lead our nation’s space program,” Sen. Some of the state’s representatives in Washington expressed optimism that the mission could get back on track. Many of those who lost their jobs were seasoned veterans whose departures shocked co-workers, JPL employees said. Last month, the lab let go of 530 employees - approximately 8% of its workforce - and 40 additional contractors. In January, 100 on-site contractors at JPL were laid off after NASA told the lab to reduce spending, despite the strenuous objections of California lawmakers. “The agreement further directs NASA to not engage in further workforce reductions of the MSR program until such report is provided,” the statement said. This can include requests to redirect as much as $649 million in its budget to Mars Sample Return, which would raise program spending to the level Biden initially requested. Once that’s in, the current budget allows NASA 60 days to present Congress a plan for the mission’s future. NASA’s response to the review is expected this spring. can’t afford to loseīringing back samples from the Red Planet would help us beat the Chinese, send humans into space and learn about how planets form. ![]() Opinion Opinion: Mars rocks are a science prize the U.S. The MSR mission envisions a lander that would retrieve those tubes and use a small rocket to ferry them into Martian orbit, where they would rendezvous with a spacecraft that would make the journey back to Earth, arriving roughly five years after the orbiter’s launch. Mars Sample Return would deliver rocks, rubble and dust from the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater that has already been gathered and sealed into tubes by the Perseverance rover. That’s a steep drop from the $822.3 million NASA spent on the program last year, and less than one-third of what the Biden administration requested. This week, the House and Senate appropriations committees finalized a deal that would grant a minimum of $300 million for the Mars Sample Return mission, which is managed by JPL. ![]() ![]() A bipartisan congressional agreement on NASA’s final budget for the current fiscal year offers a glimmer of hope that the space agency’s ambitious but troubled effort to bring pieces of Mars to Earth can recover from devastating cuts that led to hundreds of layoffs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
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