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Updated: NASA disbands science teams to make way for European mission

NASA is disbanding two major US science teams following a bilateral meeting with the European Space Agency, Nature has learned. In a public presentation April 4, Jon Morse of NASA Astrophysics Division said that the International X-ray Observatory Science team and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)’s International Science Team will formally no longer exist and the project offices are closing. The changes will make way for new European-led study teams expected to be named soon that will include missions along similar lines with new budgets, and that will also include a NASA representative, says Joel Bregman of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a member of the science definition team for IXO. “We’re being told to continue the dialogue but the ball’s in the Europeans’ court,” says Bregman. NASA is expecting budget cuts and had been unable to promise ESA it could deliver substantial funds for the missions. 

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