PASADENA, California, (AFP) - Nuclear power may give NASA (news - web sites)'s long-range missions the speed and range that combustion engines cannot, but research is sputtering for lack of funds. NASA's head of the Prometheus program said the agency has three billion dollars for the next five years. "Beyond that, we know we need more money," Al Newhouse told AFP. "We are at a very early stage of this program. It has been in existence for slighty under a year." Nuclear propulsion first became a NASA budget line item in 2003, with 125 million dollars. NASA requested 279 million...