This Week in Space 74

For decades, all the planets of the solar system had been reconnoitered—except Pluto. That last planetary body had been seen, at best, as just a faint smudge by the Hubble Space Telescope. Then, in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft sped by Pluto, sending back a swath of exciting images and science data, transforming our view of the planet. It subsequently visited the Kuiper Belt object Arrakoth and may rendezvous with another, more distant body—or not. NASA's new budget seems to spell the end of active science for New Horizons, something that does not sit well with the program's Principal Investigator, Dr. Alan Stern. Join Alan as he speaks with us about this very exciting project and what it may take to keep it alive.

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Links

• Alan Stern website
• Russia launches Luna-25 moon lander, its 1st lunar probe in 47 years
• Virgin Galactic launches 1st mother-daughter team and 1st Olympian to space on 2nd commercial flight (video)
• NASA's interstellar Voyager 2 probe resumes communication with Earth
• New Horizons - NASA's Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
• Submit a Question for NASA
• Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) · Twitter
• Pamela Melroy (@Astro_Pam) · Twitter
• Save New Horizons, the Pluto flyby and Kuiper Belt exploration mission