The French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), has abandoned funding for the NetLander mission, due to a funding crisis caused by a disconnect between program planning and available resources. At a meeting on April 30, a new budget and revised program plan were approved with the intent of restoring financial stability and maintaining programs to which the agency is contractually committed.

The NetLander mission was to deploy four landers, establishing the first network of science stations on Mars. NASA's Office of Space Science was contributing to the development of three science instruments as a Discovery Mission of Opportunity.

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