ORLANDO, Fla. — New NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gave his first State of NASA address on Wednesday plotting out the agency’s plans to continue the Artemis program to return humans to the moon as well as new Earth-centric missions as part of the largest science budget ask ever for the agency.
At the end of the 45-minute presentation, Nelson announced two new missions to Venus as part of NASA’s Discovery program, which allows for smaller planetary missions that aren’t part of NASA’s flagship missions. Named Veritas and DaVinci+, the two missions aim to analyze the second planet from the sun’s atmosphere and geologic history.
“These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface,” Nelson said. “They will offer the entire science community the chance to investigate a planet we haven’t been to in more than 30 years.”
