Ayear ago, hopes were high in the small Venus science community that, after more than two decades, NASA would finally fund a mission to the planet. Two of the five finalists for the competition for NASA's Discovery program of low-cost planetary science missions would study Venus. With NASA planning to select two missions for development, odds seemed good the agency would pick at least one. It was not to be. In early January, NASA instead picked two asteroid missions for development, and provided funding to continue studies of a third mission, a space telescope to search for near Earth asteroids. The two Venus missions, and the scientists involved in them, were shut out.
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