Rare asteroid flyby in 2029 , but Trump is killing NASA mission to study it
Another mindless, stupid cut from the Trump's know-nothing White House.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2025/06/trump-budget-kills-nasas-golden-opportunity-to-see-a-killer-asteroid-up-close/
The near miss by the large Apophis asteroid in April 2029 offers NASA a golden—and exceedingly rare—opportunity to observe such an object like this up close. Critically, the interaction between Apophis and Earth's gravitational pull will offer scientists an unprecedented chance to study the interior of an asteroid.
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So it made sense when NASA decided to fire up the mission, newly rechristened OSIRIS-Apex, and re-vector it toward Apophis. It has been happily flying toward such a rendezvous for a few years. The plan was for Apex to catch up to Apophis shortly after its encounter with Earth and study it for about 18 months.
“The most cost-efficient thing you can do in spaceflight is continue with a heathy spacecraft that is already operating in space," Binzel said.
And that was the plan until the Trump administration released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. In its detailed budget information, the White House provided no real rationale for the cancellation, simply stating, "Operating missions that have completed their prime missions (New Horizons and Juno) and the follow-on mission to OSIRIX-REx, OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer, are eliminated."
It is unclear how much canceling this mission "saved", but based on the operational costs of OSIRIX-REx, it is probably in the neighborhood of a few Trump golf weekends.
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