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Space
Space
Science
Rod Pyle

NASA's New Horizons mission faces an uncertain future (op-ed)

NASA Pluto Alan Stern New Horizons Solar System the Kuiper Belt Kuiper Belt
Pluto composite

For 17 years, the New Horizons spacecraft has hurtled at unprecedented speed through the solar system. Launched in 2006, it flew past Pluto in July 2015, returning the first close-up images of the planet and its moon. Then, in 2019, the probe reconnoitered the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth. Both encounters returned astonishing images and a treasure trove of transformative data.

With its budget being trimmed for 2024, NASA is making some weighty decisions... and one includes drastically trimming New Horizons funds by replacing the current science staff with a new team in an effort to save about $3 million—a rounding error in terms of the planetary science budget. 

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