Aviation Week & Space Technology  08/01/2005, page 16

NASA quietly canceled the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO), set for launch in 2009, by deleting it from the President's budget amendment for Fiscal 2006. The reason is that robotic missions designed to lead to a human trip to Mars, that would have been supported by MTO, have been cut back in priority to focus on manned flight to the Moon, says J. Douglas McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters. The $500-million Jet Propulsion Laboratory-managed MTO was to provide two gigabytes per day of data relay from spacecraft in orbit and on the surface of Mars, including the Mars Science Laboratory rover, which tentatively was also set for a 2009 launch (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 54).