Egy óriási probléma, hogy a Bush kormányzat nem támogatta a Terrestrial Planet Finder küldetést, és számos más exobolygókról illetve földönkívüli élet után való kutatásról szóló projektet töröltek még 2006-ban:
Delayed indefinitely - the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), a mission to detect and study Earth-like planets
• Delayed by about three years - the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), designed to map stars with unprecedented accuracy and search for planets slightly larger than Earth will now launch no earlier than 2015
• Cancelled - four to six 1.8-metre "outrigger" telescopes designed to bolster the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes in Hawaii. The outriggers would have searched for planets and imaged newborn stars
• Delayed indefinitely - the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a 2.5-metre infrared telescope built into a Boeing 747 plane, will be put under "review" because it is behind schedule. It has been given no funding for the foreseeable future
• Delayed indefinitely - NASA's cosmology programme, "Beyond Einstein", is under review. Two of its missions - LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), to search for ripples in space-time called gravitational waves, and Constellation-X, to study black holes - will be delayed indefinitely
• Cancelled/Delayed indefinitely - Mars research has been cut by $243.3 million to $700.2 million. This reflects the cancellation or indefinite postponement of missions such as the Mars Sample Return Mission and the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter
• Cut - solar system research, largely in astrobiology, has been cut by $96.5 million to $273.6 million
Nos ez ESA-nak is vannak tervei (Darwin), de ismerve az európai 'összefogást' és az ûrprogram anyagi helyzetét, ez még kilátástalanabb. Bár a francia COROT szonda több a semminél, vannak is vele észlelések.:)