BREMEN, Germany — NASA will help Europe get its long-delayed Mars life-hunting ExoMars rover off the ground, even though President Donald Trump's proposed NASA budget cuts the collaboration in a drive to reduce spending on science.

The announcement was made at the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ministerial Council — a high-level meeting of the agency's 23 member states — on Wednesday (Nov. 25).

"I've got yesterday a letter from the NASA administration to confirm the contributions of NASA to Rosalind Franklin," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told reporters at the opening of the meeting. "So, this is certainly something that is good news."

The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover is a 660-pound (300 kilograms) Mars exploration robot fitted with a 6.6-foot (2 meters) drill to search for s

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