The milky way over Tucson as seen from Windy Point
'Ghost spacecraft': NASA budget cuts threaten UA's OSIRIS & other missions
In less than four years, an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will approach the Earth, narrowly passing closer than some orbiting satellites. A NASA spacecraft — OSIRIS-APEX — is already patiently waiting, orbiting the sun, to study the space rock as it approaches.
But it might never get the chance.
The proposed 2026 NASA budget calls for defunding the University of Arizona-led space mission even though it's already midway through its operation. Six other UA-led missions are also at risk of losing all their funding.
“It would be a ghost spacecraft out there,” said Dr. Daniella Mendoza DellaGiustina, director of OSIRIS-APEX. “If there was nobody actively operating it, it would get too close to the sun to continue functioning.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, former NASA astronaut
Dani DellaGiustina, director of OSIRIS-APEX at the University of Arizona.
Kris Klein, deputy principal investigator of HelioSwarm
