Mars Shot Is Put Off for 2 Years, NASA Says

Nasa has postponed the launching mission to Mars by two years, until 2013, because of an undisclosed conflict of interested between the two final mission proposals currently being handled by NASA. This will be the first time in which NASA has missed the oppertunty to launch a mars mission in the past 10 years. Due to the huge distance separating Mars and the Earth, the possibility of reaching the planet only occurs every two years. NASA began with 26 different proposals and has gotten it down to two different proposals. Both development teams, one from the University of Colorado and another from the Southwest Research Institute branch in Boulder, CO, have until August 2008 to resubmit their proposals. The mission is expected to last 5 years and cost upwards of $500 million dollars. It is part of the Scout Space Program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/science/space/22mars.html?ref=science