Wesley Huntress, one of three advisers who resigned from the NASA Advisory Committee’s science committee this week, said he was glad to for the opportunity to serve on the panel.

“I was honored to have been asked to assist in the inauguration of the new NASA Advisory Council and my role in that process is complete,” Huntress told the Washington Aerospace Briefing. “The NAC is dedicated to supporting the Administrator’s decisions on how NASA will meet the Administration’s goals for the Vision for Space Exploration, particularly returning humans to the Moon. I wish the agency every success in that effort and sincerely hope that science will be a partner in that enterprise.”

Huntress and fellow NASA adviser Eugene Levy, a physics and astronomy professor at Rice University in Houston, were asked to resign by NASA administrator Michael Griffin, according to the Associated Press, which added that both men have been concerned that NASA maintain a strong committment to science as it pushes forward with future human spaceflight efforts. 

Charles Kennel, also a NASA science committee adviser, resigned by choice, the wire service added.

NASA’s science budget wrangling has drawn fire from critics as the space agency works to complete the International Space Station, retire its remaining three orbiters by 2010 and push ahead with plans for the Crew Exploration Vehicle and future crewed lunar expeditions.