Stern Steps Down as NASA Science Chief After Mars Budget Dustup

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=stern-steps-down-as-head

Planetary scientist resigns less than a year after being appointed to run NASA's budget-strapped science office
By JR Minkel


NASA's top science official, Alan Stern, abruptly resigned his post yesterday as associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. The announcement came two days after NASA Administrator Michael Griffin overturned a directorate budget adjustment that might have meant shutting down one of the twin rovers currently operating on Mars.

Stern had held the post just shy of a year but was credited with working to expand the agency's scientific program despite flat budgets and an increasing focus on manned missions. He pushed for unmanned projects to return a sample from Mars as well as to study the solar system's outer planets up close.

"His departure is a shock to people," says researcher Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. "It means potentially a black day for science at NASA."

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