<b><i>ULYSSES??!?!?!!!</i></b><br /><br />What on God's green earth are they thinking? Voyager is bad enough, but at least its at a point where most of the instruments are no longer functioning, and where it is no longer capable of performing the kinds of observations it was originally meant to do. But Ulysses is in the prime of its life! Let's see, what else is in that list?<br /><br />Polar, Wind, Geotail, FAST -- four satellites that have contributed enormously to our understanding of the magnetosphere and to the Sun's effects on it. Their work is VITAL to accurate space weather predictions and to understanding the hazards of space so that future spacecraft can be less vulnerable to radiation-induced errors. Cancelling them is downright idiotic, and directly impacts the future of American satellites, including military ones.<br /><br />TRACE -- that one hasn't even been up all that long! TRACE is a fantastic spacecraft. Have you seen the magnificent images it produces? It has revolutionized our understanding of the sun, which also is vital to understanding space weather. That has major implications for communications technology.<br /><br />Actually, ALL of these spacecraft have contributed to better understanding of the Sun and space weather. More significantly, the synergy between them and other spacecraft not on the hitlist has given us a unique way of studying the Sun, the heliosphere, space weather, the Earth's magnetosphere, terrestrial auroras, and how this all interrelates.<br /><br />I actually think this is stupider than cancelling Hubble, because of the direct and immediate impacts on satellite and communications technology. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>