I’m working on better info, but considering the source, this article by Robert Zubrin in the Moonie Times, titled “Obama readies to blast NASA,” has all the hallmarks of a politically motivated hit piece:

The ostensible reason for the administration’s decision to kill planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline. Yet while federal spending has grown 40 percent since 2008, NASA’s funding has remained virtually the same. It is not NASA that is bankrupting America, but OMB. If the administration needs to cut budgets, it should start with those of the regulatory agencies that are strangling the nation’s businesses …