Pluto's New Horizons mission approved

[Magikman]

Alan Stern is 45 years old. He was 32 when serious planning began for a mission to Pluto, which he just learned has been quietly and formally approved. He'll be 57 when the spacecraft he and others have been promoting finally gets there.

Will the long road to Pluto, a popular planet with both children and scientists and the only one never visited by a spacecraft, be worth the quarter-century wait?

"Past experience in planet exploration has consistently proved the value of reconnaissance missions for revolutionizing our view," Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizons mission, told SPACE.com. "Yes it'll be worth the wait, and then some."

Stern calls New Horizons "the first exploration of the third zone of the solar system," the region beyond both the terrestrial planets and the giant planets.

View: Full Article | Source: SPACE.COM