AN AMBITIOUS NASA plan to change the course of earth-bound asteroids potentially averting an EXTINCTION LEVEL catastrophe is being scrapped by Donald Trump. Four more space programs, largely collecting and analysing climate data, have also been axed. The controversial Asteroid Redirect Mission was an Obama-era project and would have seen robotic space probes grabbing a block from a speeding asteroid and forcing it into orbit around the Moon. Phase two of the Asteroid Redirect Mission would see astronauts landing on the orbiting space rock and carrying out further research. NASA scientists not only hoped to gain astonishing new knowledge about the universe but the program was a test-bed for a bigger programme to deflect bigger, life threatening asteroids from a collision course with Earth. But last night the Trump administration released its 2018 budget request which included a proposal calling for the cancellation of NASA's astronauts-to-an-asteroid mission - along with four otherEarth