The current Decadal Survey report recommended five New Frontiers mission types, and notably did not include a mission to Titan or Enceladus. NASA revised the acceptable mission list in 2016 to include missions to ocean worlds, providing an opening for missions like Dragonfly, in response to increasing scientific and public interest in the moons of the outer solar system. Many in the Titan community felt shut out of the decadal process last time, as their flagship mission concept was rejected for being too expensive while there was no mid-sized mission option to compete for. Today is a win for ocean worlds, even if this mission does not ultimately get selected.

Given the Moon focus of the Trump administration, it was surprising to see the that the lunar sample return concept (one of the decadal-recommended missions) did not make it to the final round. In the previous New Frontiers competition, the Moonrise sample return proposal reached the final round but lost out to OSIRIS-REx. Given the amount of maturity, investment, and development in that project, I was surprised to see this did not make the final cut. It is possible—some would argue even likely—that lunar science missions will see additional funding options in whatever new framework NASA will develop to achieve our new national space policy.

And what more can one say about Venus? A mission there was once again cut out, and the Venusian community will have to wait for yet another mission selection round. The next opportunity will be the upcoming Discovery selection in 2020. There were two Venus missions that made it to the final selection last time, so those have a good shot at another selection. The additional technology funding provided to VICI may help the Venus community be competitive in the next round, but even if Venus wins, a mission wouldn’t launch until 2025 or so, enshrining a minimum three-decade-long gap in NASA-led missions to our Earth-ish neighbor.