When SIM Lite entered what JPL terms "Phase B" in 2003 "Fringes: Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter", called it a most important milestone on the way to a 2009 launch. The delays are budgetary in nature. In 2006, the mission received $117 million, an increase of $8.1 million over the previous year, but 2007 cuts amounted to $47.9 million less for the SIM program. In 2008, $128.7 million of the $223.9 million estimated to be cut from the Exoplanet Program budget would come from the SIM Lite mission. After an additional $51.9 million decrease in FY 2009, the program was reduced to $6 million in FY 2010 supplemented by substantial carryover from the previous year while awaiting the results of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Astro2010.