Comment Re:NASA got cold feet? (Score 4, Informative) 45
So, that's the impression the headline and summary gives, but if you RTFA, it does state that the current meshugas is not responsible for this. But it's not at all clear from the article that the cancellation predates this by quite a bit; several years. Studies of it began in tandem with development of Europa Clipper, but ultimately there wasn't enough funding for both, and that we weren't ready for it at this point.
It's not like there's hardware already built and ready to send up, either. Yes, there were studies, but the lander never even got to Phase A (Concept and Technology Development), which would have required a new start from Congress.
It's also not at all clear to me that you'd even want to send the same hardware to Enceladus that you'd designed for Europa. They both would land on ocean worlds, but apart from that, this would appear to be an entirely new mission concept.