The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Tuesday it decided to cancel its Janus mission, which was set to send twin small satellite spacecraft to study two separate binary asteroid systems.
NASA explained that, after missing its initial launch date in 2022, it rescheduled the launch for October 2023, but then concluded it "cannot deliver the two spacecraft to the mission's original targets."
The agency added that the contracted work remaining on the two spacecraft that had been planned for the mission will be completed, after which the spacecraft will be prepared for storage in case "future funding may enable an opportunity to utilize" them.