Congressional appropriators have rebuffed U.S. President Barack Obama’s request to allocate $30 million next year toward resuming domestic production of the nuclear fuel needed to power deep space missions like the Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. As a result, NASA faces a minimum one-year delay in the future availability of this critical material, creating uncertainty that will impede planning for missions to the outer planets and their moons, which are among the most intriguing objects in the solar system.
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