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Science 23 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5414, p. 567
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5414.567b
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ScienceScope

A nifty NASA plan to land a probe on a comet's head appears to be back on track after a budget scare. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, want to send the Champollion spacecraft to a 2006 rendezvous with comet Tempel 1. But earlier this month, the $158 million project seemed imperiled by budget strains caused by unplanned expenses in other science programs, including a $76 million emergency repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (Science, 19 March, p. 1827) and mounting expenses related to the delayed Chandra X-ray Observatory. Worried that his dream child would be sentenced to death, project scientist Paul Weissman earlier this month sent a letter to colleagues appealing for help.

This week, however, Weissman said the scare turned out to be much ado about nothing. After presenting a revised design to NASA brass, who were worried that the project was over budget, the cancellation demon is "back in the bag," he says. However, sources say agency officials are still looking for savings elsewhere in the space science portfolio--a threat that has some researchers looking over their shoulders.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)