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Last month NASA canceled the VIPER lunar rover. From a budget of $250 million, the total cost had grown to $609.6 MM—not counting a now $323 MM lander. The response has been largely negative, but some say "The scandal isn’t that NASA canceled the mission. The scandal is that NASA waited this long."


VIPER’s cancellation is bad for lunar science, but good for NASA. Especially in a constrained budget environment, NASA should be willing to cancel more missions, sooner.

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