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The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Media Contacts: 

Michael Buckley (JHUAPL)
(240) 228-7536
michael.buckley{at}jhuapl.edu, or

Maria Martinez (Southwest Research Institute)
(210) 522-3305
mmartinez{at}swri.org

April 9, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PLUTO-KUIPER BELT MISSION MOVES AHEAD;
NASA Approves Full-Scale Development for APL-Managed New Horizons

The solar system's farthest known planetary outpost is closer to
getting its first visitor. This week, NASA gave The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute
and their partners the go-ahead to start full development of the
first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

The New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to launch in January 2006,
swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in
2007, and reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, as early as summer 2015.
The arrival date depends on the launch vehicle NASA selects for the
mission this summer -- either a Boeing Delta 4 or Lockheed Martin
Atlas 5. 

After a six-month encounter with Pluto-Charon -- during which New
Horizons will characterize Pluto's and Charon's global geology and
geomorphology, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and
examine Pluto's complex atmosphere -- the spacecraft will head deeper
into the Kuiper Belt to study one or more of the icy mini-worlds in
that vast region, at least a billion miles beyond Neptune's orbit.

"We've designed the mission, the spacecraft and the instruments, and
we're ready to start cutting metal," says New Horizons Project
Manager Thomas Coughlin, of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL),
Laurel, Md. "This is the time in a mission when things really start
rolling toward launch. We have less than three years to go and there
is a lot to do between now and then -- and we're excited to get
moving on it." 

APL manages the mission for NASA and will design, build and operate
the New Horizons spacecraft. Dr. Alan Stern, director of the
Southwest Research Institute's Department of Space Studies in
Boulder, Colo., is the mission's principal investigator and leads an
unprecedented science effort. "This is exploration at its greatest,
as only the U.S. space program can do," Stern says. "New Horizons
will reconnoiter the great, unexplored 'third zone' of our solar
system and make a historic flyby of the outermost known planet." 

NASA tapped the APL-SwRI team to conduct its Pluto-Kuiper Belt
mission in November 2001, and preliminary design work began in
January 2002. 

"The systems and instruments have all been on the drawing board and
we've gone over many details," says David Kusnierkiewicz, New
Horizons mission systems engineer at APL. "Now we've honed in on
specific designs and we're ready to start putting systems and
instruments together." 

Assembly has already started on New Horizons' scientific instruments
and the team will begin fabricating parts of the spacecraft's
structure next month. Baseline plans for the New Horizons mission
include use of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), which
could supply over 200 watts of electrical power for the spacecraft.
The mission's next major milestone is a critical design review in
early August; if that goes as expected, spacecraft integration and
testing would begin in May 2004. 

That date will come two months after the scheduled launch of another
APL spacecraft - the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment,
GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) satellite -- which is set to
become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. MESSENGER, now under
construction at APL, will launch aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in March 2004 and begin a yearlong
orbit study of Mercury in April 2009. 

"We have the unique opportunity to complete the exploration of the
planets, while traveling to the solar system's extremes," says Dr.
Stamatios Krimigis, head of the APL Space Department. "Before the end
of the decade we are going to visit the largely unexplored innermost
planet, where surface temperatures are near 845 degrees Fahrenheit,
and the thermal environment for our spacecraft will be rather
demanding. And we're leading a mission to the outermost planet, where
estimated temperatures are minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit. It's an
incredible challenge and a chance to make history."

The New Horizons mission team also includes major partners Stanford 
University, Palo Alto, Calif.; Ball Aerospace Corp., Boulder; NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. SwRI, headquartered in San Antonio, is
responsible for scientific instrument development, science team
management and the mission's scientific investigations.

For more information on the New Horizons mission, visit 

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

For more information on the MESSENGER mission -- including live
Webcam images of MESSENGER's construction -- visit http://messenger.
jhuapl.edu 

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