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THE honeymoon is over for NASA and the European Space Agency. Ambitious joint space missions now hang in the balance because NASA is short of cash.
In recent years, NASA and ESA have been planning to join forces on ventures to places like Mars. The rationale was that they could mount bigger missions than either could afford alone.
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But NASA鈥檚 budget is not expected to expand any time soon, and it now appears unable to pay its share of the bill for the missions, calling their future into question.
NASA鈥檚 planetary science chief James Green announced on 17 March that the agency is postponing indefinitely its plans for an orbiter round Jupiter鈥檚 icy moon Europa. The orbiter was to be one-half of a joint mission due for launch around 2020. ESA is still pondering whether to go ahead with its orbiter for Jupiter鈥檚 moon Ganymede.
NASA funding also looks unlikely for other potential joint missions, including a black hole mission called the International X-ray Observatory.