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To the delight of planetary scientists, NASA is again trying to get a probe
to Pluto by 2015. In September, the agency shelved the Pluto-Kuiper Express,
which was hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. On 20 December, NASA
space sciences chief Ed Weiler called for proposals for a new $500
million Pluto mission to be launched before 2006. “I think this is phenomenal
news,” says Alan Stern, a planetary astronomer at the Southwest Research
Institute in Boulder, Colorado. But Weiler cautions, “We’re not making a
commitment to do a Pluto mission or any of these proposals.”