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 LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA has delayed two programs that search for planets capable of supporting life as the space agency instead focuses on developing a new manned spacecraft to return to the moon in the next decade.
The delayed SIM PlanetQuest and Terrestrial Planet Finder missions, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aim to determine whether there are Earth-like planets beyond our solar system with conditions suitable for life or developing in that direction.
President Bush's budget proposal released Monday seeks to give the National Aeronautics and Space Administration $16.8 billion for fiscal year 2007, a 3 percent increase from the year before. Of that, about $5.3 billion in funding will go toward the space agency's science missions.
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