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Senate Panel Revives Pluto Mission
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 12:30 pm ET
26 July 2002
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WASHINGTON -- Ignoring NASA's wishes, the Senate Appropriations WASHINGTON -- Ignoring NASA's wishes, the Senate Appropriations Committee included $115 million for the New Horizons mission to Pluto in approving a $15.2 billion budget for the U.S. space agency for 2003. Senate appropriators further directed NASA to make New Horizons the first mission in the agency's newly revamped outer planets exploration program dubbed New Frontiers. The NASA monies were included in a $91.4 billion spending bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. In addition to NASA, the bill also funds veterans' medical benefits, public housing programs, and environmental protection efforts. The addition of the New Horizons money was good news for proponents of launching an unmanned probe to Pluto in 2006. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has said repeatedly that he favors putting off the mission until sometime next decade when nuclear propulsion systems could enable a probe to reach the distant planet faster and stay there longer. A recent National Research Council decadal survery of planetary exploration, however, disagreed with the NASA party line and identified a near-term mission to Pluto and the nearby Kuiper Belt as the top priority of the New Frontiers program. Aside from restoring the New Horizons mission, senate appropriators left NASA's budget request largely intact.If the Senate's bill becomes law, the space shuttle and international space station programs would receive $3.1 billion and $1.7 billion next year respectively, the same as NASA requested. NASA's Space Launch Initiative, however, would take a slight hit. Senate appropriators trimmed $30 million from NASA's $759 million request for the reusable launch vehicle technology development effort.
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