NASA gives budget-busting Mars probe a reprieve

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA needs more money to resolve problems with its next Mars mission and keep it on track for launch next year, and is gambling that the U.S. Congress will find the extra funds, officials said on Friday.

Exactly how much more cash will be needed to keep the Mars Science Laboratory on schedule, and where it will come from, officials with the U.S. space agency would not say.

"If we're going to launch in 2009 or 2011, additional budget resources are going to be necessary," Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters, said during a conference call with reporters.

Despite the uncertainty, NASA officials said they were forging ahead with plans to launch the roving chemistry station between September 15 and October 15 of next year, when Earth and Mars are favorably aligned. The planets sweep into optimal position every two years.

Costs for the probe, which is about the size of a sport utility vehicle and is designed to assess Mars' suitability for life, already have swelled to $1.9 billion from $1.6 billion.

NASA has been launching probes at every opportunity in an attempt to learn if life ever took hold beyond Earth.

The Mars Science Lab is an ambitious follow-on program to the two small rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently exploring the equatorial regions of Mars for signs of past water.

"This is a really important scientific mission," McCuistion said. "This is truly the push into the next decade for the Mars program and for the discovery for the potential for life on other planets.