The rock, dubbed "Atacama" and measuring 1.5 feet in diameter at its base and 6 inches thick, weighed approximately 28.6 pounds (13 kilograms). After drilling the sample on April 25, the rover operators retracted Curiosity's arm as they had done many times before. However, this time, the entire rock was lifted, "suspended by the fixed sleeve that surrounds the rotating drill bit," according to NASA.
"If implemented, upwards of 53 science missions would be terminated, nearly half of NASA's entire science fleet. Thousands of jobs would be lost, billions of dollars of taxpayer investments would be wasted, and more than a dozen international partnerships would be broken."
The promise of RDREs is that they can move a spacecraft faster and more efficiently, allowing them to carry heavier payloads and travel farther distances than conventional rockets.
I mentioned it was 41-C that originally was STS-13, and my friend Jim Beggs, who was the administrator of NASA, had triskaidekaphobia, and he said, 'There's not going to be [another] Apollo 13 or a Shuttle 13, so come up with a new numbering system.'