The big nuclear-powered Mars rover is NASA's last chance to drive scientific instruments around on the Martian surface in this decade.

As the U.S. looks for ways to reduce an immense budget deficit, planners in the military and intelligence communities appear to be questioning whether they really need two commercial imagery providers to supplement the super-capable government spacecraft. And that has set off a messy dance between two publicly traded satellite operators, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, about whether they should merge and on what terms.

For most air travelers, access to high-speed Internet at 30,000 ft. is neither easy nor cheap. It's not that inflight broadband is unavailable to commercial and business jet passengers—a number of airlines are gradually adding connectivity options to their fleets. But despite the uptick in broadband-enabled tablets and smartphones in recent years, WiFi in the sky has been slow to gain traction in the broader airline community, where it can be sluggish, spotty and expensive.

Contenders for NASA's commercial crew program are revealing complete concepts and new teammates.

Congress and the White House are headed for a funding brawl over the expensive robotic spacecraft known as flagship planetary-science missions. Flagship missions are rare, because they cost $2-3 billion, and they may become rarer. In its spending request for fiscal 2013, NASA pulled back from work on a peer-reviewed flagship mission to return samples from the surface of Mars, and left it unclear if there will be any more flagship flights to explore elsewhere in the Solar System.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has helped to block airline consolidation in the past, and now he has set his sights on the proposed union of US Airways and American Airlines. Schumer, a leading Democrat in the Senate, met last week with US Airways CEO Douglas Parker. Shortly after, Schumer followed up with a letter to the airline executive expressing his concerns about the merger's potential to disrupt airline service in upstate N.Y. Schumer is also asking whether a merger would derail American's plan to expand its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

When Republicans talk about reducing the deficit, they don't mean reducing defense spending. House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would prevent massive budget reductions from taking place at the Pentagon next year by instead cutting funding for food stamps and other social programs. “This plan ensures that we maintain our fiscal discipline and commitment to reducing out-of-control government spending, while making sure our top priority is national security,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said after the bill passed.

If only the court system worked faster. A judge last week dismissed drunken driving charges against former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt after watching video of the incident and concluding Babbitt should not have been pulled over in the first place. And although his legal record and now his reputation are restored, the decision will not allow him to return to his old job. His former deputy, Michael Huerta, has been nominated by the president to replace him and is awaiting Senate confirmation.