After months of turmoil over the future of a vaunted mission to bring samples of the Red Planet back to Earth, NASA has its verdict on Mars Sample Return. The space agency is “committed” to bringing ...

Projected multibillion-dollar overruns have some calling the agency's plan a 'dumpster fire.' When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

NASA announced Friday that it will award contracts to seven companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, to study how to transport rock samples from Mars more cheaply back to Earth. The space agency ...

NASA’s $11 billion plan to robotically bring rock samples from Mars back to Earth is too expensive and will take too long, the agency’s administrator said Monday, so officials are tasking government ...

NASA's Mars Sample Return program, aiming to bring Martian samples back to Earth, faces significant budget overruns, with projected costs exceeding $8 billion and a return date pushed to 2040. In ...

The space agency has put its ambitious plans to return samples from Mars on hold as it sorts out its funding for next year. Reading time 3 minutes NASA is pulling back from its Mars Sample Return ...

NASA's mission is to return rock, soil and others samples to Earth for study. NASA announced Tuesday that it's exploring two landing options to move forward with its mission to retrieve environmental ...

This mosaic is made up of more than 100 images captured by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter, which operated around Mars from 1976 to 1980. The scar across the center of the planet is the vast Valles Marineris ...

Update: A minibus spending package passed by the House of Representatives on January 8, 2026, effectively cancels the Mars Sample Return program by eliminating almost all funding for future missions.

Lockheed Martin has been part of all NASA Mars missions to date and it has been part of every single sample return mission to date. And, with the Mars Sample Return mission on the horizon, Lockheed ...