NASA's MAVEN Mission Is Saved From The Government Shutdown
MAVEN LASP Although 97 percent of NASA employees have been put on furlough, there's at least one silver lining for space exploration: the MAVEN Mars orbiter, originally slated for shutdown, has been saved. MAVEN, a Mars satellite, was complete, loaded, and set for launch on November 18 when Congress failed to pass a new budget, sending the government into emergency mode and canning all "non-essential" government activities. That included the MAVEN mission, although there were several reasons to keep the launch moving ahead: if NASA missed its launch window--November 18 to December 7, or December 15 at the absolute latest--the next optimal launch time wouldn't be until 2016. Even then, conditions wouldn't be as prime as they'll be this November. Thankfully, MAVEN mission head Bruce Jakosky wrote in an email to Popular Science that NASA chiefs reviewed the terms of the Anti-Deficiency...