Fiscal year (FY) 2012 ended on a high note for NASA with the
successful landing of the rover Curiosity on the surface of Mars
in August. Over the next several years, Curiosity will explore
the Red Planet in an effort to determine if it has ever been
able to support life. Earlier in the year, NASA achieved a major
milestone toward its goal of fostering the development of a
commercial space transportation capability to low Earth orbit
with the successful test flight of the Space Exploration
Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft to the
International Space Station (ISS), followed in October by the
first actual commercial resupply mission. The year was not
without challenges, however. For example, due to cost overruns
in the James Webb Space Telescope and other projects, NASA had
to reprogram funds away from several Agency initiatives. This
resulted in developmental delays in some ongoing projects and
cancellation of other planned projects, including the
ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter missions to Mars.