There's an interesting article in tomorrow's issue of Science by Charlene Crabb entitled "NASA Bails Out of French-Led Mars Mission," which gives a few more details in the sequence of events. Consistent with what I've heard, Crabb reports that NASA notified CNES late last year that NetLander would not fly on 2009 Mars Telesat because of the "risks" and "additional costs." Also at that time, NASA informed CNES that Banerdt's mission would not be funded, which is consistent with the Discovery Program website de-listing. Interestingly, Crabb also writes

"NetLander's fate now rests with the European Space Agency (ESA). Last week, CNES and ESA researchers met to discuss ESA taking control of the NetLander program and hitching the payload to a possible 2009 ESA Mars mission. The CNES board of directors was due to meet this week to decide if it will provide $88 million to continue developing NetLander until its launch."

I assume this was written before the AFP press release yesterday; however, Crabb goes on to write

"ESA may put off a final decision on whether to rescue NetLander until next year, says Marcello Coradini, coordinator of solar system missions at ESA. Even if ESA doesn't take over, NetLander will have one lifeline remaining. The Russian Space Agency has offered to launch the four landers aboard a Soyuz rocket in 2009, but at a cost of up to $50 million, which may still be too much for the troubled CNES."

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii