NASA's Budget Woes Jeopardize Future Missions.

The increasing costs of NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, which aims to return samples from Mars to Earth, are putting pressure on other planetary science missions and a major heliophysics mission. The 2024 budget proposal requests $949.3 million for MSR, a significant increase from the $653.2 million appropriated for MSR in fiscal year 2023. NASA warns that costs will continue to grow, and it may have to reduce funding for other activities within the Science Program or descope elements of the MSR mission. The delay of the Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission is a major factor in an overall reduction in heliophysics in the budget.