Defense & policy · first seen 7 Aug, updated 7 Aug
The programme to return Perseverance’s rock samples from Mars was cancelled by the US Congress in January 2026 — the rover has spent five years drilling and caching the most carefully selected geological samples in history, and right now there is no approved mission to bring them home
Congress has ended support for the existing Mars Sample Return programme. Perseverance's carefully documented collection now waits on Mars with no approved retrieval mission. The post The programme to return Perseverance’s rock samples from…
Summary from SpaceDaily.