Editing Space Interferometry Mission (section)

===Budget===
SIM Lite was to be considered the flagship mission of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program (formerly known as the Navigator Program). According to the 2007 Presidential Budget for NASA, the program is, "a coherent series of increasingly challenging projects, each complementary to the others and each mission building on the results and capabilities of those that preceded it as NASA searches for habitable planets outside of the Solar System."<ref name=budget1>[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf FY 2007 NASA Budget] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228042519/https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf |date=28 February 2021 }}, ''NASA'', pg. 80–81. Retrieved 2 November 2006.</ref> The program, in addition to the Space Interferometry Mission, includes the [[Keck Interferometer]] and the [[Large Binocular Telescope]] Interferometer. When originally approved in 1996, the mission was given a $700&nbsp;million cap (in 1996 dollars) which included launch costs and five years of operation.<ref name=aerospace/> The first contracts, for the preliminary architecture study, were worth $200,000 each.<ref name=aerospace>{{cite news|url=https://aviationweek.com/nasa-picks-three-teams-study-space-interferometry|title=NASA picks three teams to study space interferometry|date=January 14, 1997|publisher=Aviation Week|access-date=December 5, 2022}}</ref>
[[Image:Keck obervatories.jpg|thumb|left|The telescopes at the [[Keck Observatory]] are used as the [[Keck Interferometer]], another of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration programs to suffer budget cuts in 2007.<ref name=budget3>"[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf FY 2007 NASA Budget]", ''NASA'', p. 85. Retrieved 25 April 2007.</ref>]]
NASA's budget outlined plans for the three projects for [[fiscal year]] (FY) 2007. Of the three missions, SIM Lite was delayed further and the Keck Interferometer saw budget cuts.<ref name=budget1/><ref name=budget3/> The 2007 NASA budget stipulated, "SIM Phase B activity will continue while new cost and schedule plans are developed, consistent with recent funding decisions."<ref name=budget1/> The funding decisions included a US$118.5&nbsp;million cut over the FY 2006 NASA budget request for the Exoplanet Exploration Program. The budget also laid out projections for the program through the year 2010. Each year will have successive funding cuts, if compared to the 2006 request numbers. Starting with FY 2008, the Exoplanet Exploration Program will receive around $223.9&nbsp;million less compared to 2006. The following years will have cuts of $155.2&nbsp;million in 2009 and $172.5&nbsp;million in 2010, compared to the 2006 request.<ref name=budget1/>

When SIM Lite entered what JPL terms "Phase B" in 2003 ''Fringes: Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter'', called it a most important milestone on the way to a 2009 launch.<ref name=milestone>"[http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/newsletters/06-20-03.txt SIM enters Phase B!] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001162135/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/newsletters/06-20-03.txt |date=1 October 2006 }}", ''Fringes: Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter'', 20 June 2003. Retrieved 2 November 2006.</ref> The delays are budgetary in nature.<ref name=fringes/><ref name=FY2006>[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/107486main_FY06_high.pdf FY 2006 NASA Budget] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122150402/http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/107486main_FY06_high.pdf |date=22 November 2013 }}, ''NASA'', p. 65. Retrieved 25 April 2007.</ref> In 2006, the mission received $117&nbsp;million, an increase of $8.1&nbsp;million over the previous year, but 2007 cuts amounted to $47.9&nbsp;million less for the SIM program. In 2008, $128.7&nbsp;million of the $223.9&nbsp;million estimated to be cut from the Exoplanet Program budget would come from the SIM Lite mission. After an additional $51.9&nbsp;million decrease in FY 2009,<ref name=budget2>[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf FY 2007 NASA Budget] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228042519/https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf |date=28 February 2021 }}, (PDF), NASA, pg. 83. Retrieved 2 November 2006.</ref> the program was reduced to $6 million in FY 2010 supplemented by substantial carryover from the previous year while awaiting the results of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Astro2010.<ref name=astro2010>"[http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_049810 Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025231435/http://sites.nationalacademies.org/bpa/BPA_049810 |date=25 October 2019 }}", National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 31 March 2010.</ref>

By February 2007 many of the budget cuts outlined in the FY 2007 budget were already being felt within the project. Engineers who worked on SIM were forced to find other areas to work in.<ref name=fringes/> A February 2007 editorial in the ''Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter'' described the situation as, "entirely due to budget pressures and priorities within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA (with) scientific motivation for the mission...as strong as ever."<ref name=fringes/> NASA, per the budget cuts, directed the SIM project to refocus its efforts toward engineering [[risk management|risk reduction]]. As of the February 2007 newsletter the plans for the refocus were in the process of being completed.<ref name=fringes>Unwin, Steve, ed. "[http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/newsletters/02-27-07.txt Editorial] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713163945/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/newsletters/02-27-07.txt |date=13 July 2007 }}", ''Fringes: Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter'', No. 40, 27 February 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2007.</ref>