White House Seeks $18.5 Billion NASA Budget, with Deep Space in Mind

The $18.5 billion budget request, presented by Bolden today (Feb. 2), includes funding for developing a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, and the agency's asteroid redirect mission (ARM). Officials think ARM could help pave the way for crewed missions to the Red Planet by the 2030s. "NASA is firmly on a journey to Mars," Bolden said. If the budget request proceeds as is, NASA could end the long-running Opportunity rover's mission on Mars next year.