Posted: Sat, Dec 22, 2007, 8:09 AM ET (1309 GMT)
NASA will skip a 2011 opportunity to launch a Mars orbiter after the agency discovered a conflict of interest when reviewing two mission proposals. Agency officials provided few details about the conflict, discovered after the agency had received detailed proposals from two finalists for the 2001 Mars Scout mission opportunity, other than that the conflict was severe enough that its only recourse was to reconstitute the review panel that would judge the proposals. The delay would have created too much schedule and cost pressure to meet a 2011 launch, so NASA decided instead to slip the mission to 2013. The slip is expected to cost NASA $40 million. The two finalists, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and The Great Escape, are both designed to study the Martian upper atmosphere.

Related Links:

•  Nature News article
•  AP article
•  New York Times article
•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  NASA press release