spacetoday.net: Budget impasse shuts down most of NASA

Posted: Tue, Oct 1, 2013, 8:00 AM ET (1200 GMT)
NASA

The failure of Congress to agree on a stopgap funding bill for the federal government has resulted in much of the federal government, including most NASA activities, being shut down starting Tuesday. The House and Senate failed to agree on terms of a continuing resolution bill that would fund the government at fiscal year 2013 levels into the beginning of fiscal year 2014, which started Tuesday. With the lapse in appropriations, non-essential government services are shut down as of midnight. Only a few hundred NASA employees will remain on job performing essential activities, including mission control for the International Space Station and operations of other satellites. Most NASA public activities will be suspended during the shutdown, and preparations of the MAVEN spacecraft planned for launch to Mars in mid-November will be suspended as well.