President Biden has named an acting head of NASA, but what other changes are in store for the agency?
Let’s connect the dots.
NASA has a lot of big projects on its calendar, but some of them may not survive a new administration.
One that will is “Perseverance." The Mars rover is scheduled to land on the red planet on February 18.
Its mission, if it manages the difficult feat of arriving on the Martian surface, will be to scour it for ancient signs of life and to collect and store samples.
Perseverance is also designed to help pave the way for human exploration of Mars.
The next leap in that Mars mission, Artemis, could be in trouble. That is the project to once again land humans on the moon to help the agency take the next step to Mars. The goal was to get there by 2024, but a budget passed by Congress last month does not include enough money to make that happen.
Even with support from a Biden administration, the mission could be pushed back to 2028.
When it comes to the Space Force there are still a lot of questions about the role it will play. Its mission is to operate and defend U.S. satellites.
Although it is one of President Trump’s accomplishments, experts do not expect the new president to dismantle the agency.
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