Filed under
policy
4 milestones, in chronological order.
- 7 March 1970First Contact
Nixon says no to Mars
Von Braun had twelve astronauts leaving Earth orbit on 12 November 1981 aboard two nuclear ships. Seven months later Nixon put Mars behind a rigorous system of national priorities.
- Tested 1969, terminated January 1973First Contact
NERVA runs in Nevada, then the money stops
A nuclear engine ran 28 times at Jackass Flats at twice the exhaust velocity of any chemical stage. The budget office zeroed it, and the programme ended in January 1973.
- 23 January 2026The Present Push
Mars Sample Return runs out of money
Ten sealed tubes have lain in the dust at Three Forks since January 2023, waiting for a retrieval mission that Congress declined to fund three years later.
- Earliest returns 2031 — if anyone goes to fetch themThe Road AheadPlanned
The samples that stayed on Mars
Congress defunded Mars Sample Return in January 2026. Perseverance's sealed tubes sit in Jezero while China's Tianwen-3 aims to bring back martian rock by 2031.