Strange choice of headline for a mission that was planned to run for 3 months but ran successfully for 14 years. 
This is a skilled and subtle form of propaganda. By putting the price tag up front (how is this relevant to the story?) the immediate and natural reaction is to scoff “What a waste!” when by the standards of space missions this was incredibly successful and long-lived.
Ironically, NASA tried to kill it several times. The bureaucratic side of NASA hates it when missions run long. They have to continue paying pennies to continue to operate what they invested millions to build and launch.
But they’d created a monster. The Mars rovers were too popular. They had to let them continue to do great science.
Leave it to anti-science Fox to spin the inevitable end to a great mission as some sort of failure.
Leave it to anti-science Fox to spin the inevitable end to a great mission as some sort of failure.
