NASA continues to work on a number of projects during the budget crisis, as an exception to the rules

A few days ago on Habré was published the news that most of the NASA employees were sent on unpaid leave. In addition, due to administrative problems in the United States (the shutdown of the state apparatus due to budgetary disputes), a number of important projects could also be stopped, including postponing the launch of the Maven Martian probe from this year to 2016. But this did not happen.

NASA management decided to introduce a number of exceptions for particularly important projects in order to prevent disruptions. For example, the same launch of the MAVEN probe will be carried out in time, from November to December. Transfer start will not, which is very good. The fact is that one of the tasks of the probe is to provide communication of research "Martian" vehicles.
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In addition, the probe will explore the dynamics of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the Red Planet.

It is worth noting that the budget of the project is quite large - about $ 650 million, and postponing the launch of the probe for many years was fraught with an increase in the budget, and, perhaps, disruption of the project. It is worth recalling that now 97% of the agency’s employees are on unpaid leave. Of course, most NASA programs are frozen and / or postponed.

Via theverge