NASA Learning Technologies has extended its deadline for developers to submit proposals for a NASA MMO to July 21, according to tech news site Slashdot. The group attributed the extension to recent confusion over the project's budget after a Request For Proposal briefing in April.

The NASA "Massively Multiplayer Online Educational Game" aims to potentially teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to students in middle school through college with a virtual world that also provides a challenging gameplay experience.

Questions were initially raised after NASA Learning Technologies discussed establishing "a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement" for the project, which many mistakenly equated to the group terminating its announced $3M budget. Reports later clarified that while NASA will not be directly funding the MMO’s eventual developer, its $3M budget will be used for its contributions to the project, including access to media assets, data, archives, and NASA “subject matter experts,” such as engineers and scientists.

NASA intends to offer a licensing agreement in which the contracted developer would still make money from the MMO’s release. NASA Learning Technologies has launched an official site with more information on the project, as well as a Questions and Answers section which will presumably offer further clarification on its budget in the near future.