Most employees working on NASA's canceled lunar rover remain at agency

Bill Bluethmann, PhD talks about at the Resource Prospector 2015 (RP15) Rover Prototype at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, in Houston. The rover is designed to drill into the moon's crust in search of water. less Bill Bluethmann, PhD talks about at the Resource Prospector 2015 (RP15) Rover Prototype at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, in Houston. The rover is designed to drill into the moon's crust ... more Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Most employees working on NASA's canceled lunar rover remain at agency 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

More than 95 percent of the employees working on NASA's recently canceled lunar rover still work for the space agency, officials said Friday.

The much-anticipated rover, called Resource Prospector, was abruptly canceled in April, just a few years before it was slated to rocket to the moon in search of water. The decision stunned scientists and researchers alike, especially given the recent push by President Donald Trump's administration to return Americans to the moon as a stepping stone for Mars.

RELATED STORY: NASA's lunar rover could enable deep-space exploration

The space agency has since announced it will rely on commercial companies for future robotic missions to the lunar surface — missions that will use parts from the canceled rover, such as its ice drill, a system to search for hydrogen below the lunar surface, and a tool to quantify water extracted from the moon. But this decision wasn't made until the agency had spent more than four years and almost half of the project's $250 million budget.

RELATED STORY: Three major NASA projects in limbo because of delays, cancellations

At the time of cancellation, there were 90 civil servant and contract employees working on the $250 million rover. They primarily worked across three NASA centers: Johnson Space Center in Houston, Ames Research Center in California and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Two months later, 86 of those workers are still with the agency, spokeswoman Cheryl Warner said. Those individuals now work on projects including the International Space Station, the Mars 2020 rover and the mini-space station orbiting the moon proposed in Trump's 2019 budget, she added.

RELATED STORY: NASA employees working on recently canceled lunar rover will be 'reassigned'

Out of the four individuals no longer with the agency, Warner said three decided to leave NASA "for other opportunities" and one decided to retire.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.