Space Leaders Sign Letter Protesting Changes In New Horizons’ Mission

Keith’s note: Recently I posted an item “There May Be A Second Kuiper Belt And New Horizons Is Headed There“ that noted “In a meeting today of the NASA New Horizons Science Team a presentation strongly suggests that our solar system actually has a second Kuiper Belt.” I then posted “Hijacking New Horizons” which noted that New Horizons will be visiting the region where there seems to be another Kuiper Belt in a few years. Alas, the ability to continue to conduct a planetary mission to explore these regions of our solar system is not in SMD’s plans. They want to change it into a heliophysics mission and get rid of the current New Horizons team. The following was released by Planetary Exploration News yesterday: “The following statement by the undersigned concerns the extended New Horizons mission:” More below.

“We the undersigned leaders view with alarm NASA’s announced intention to prematurely end the exploration of the solar system’s Kuiper Belt by New Horizons well before the spacecraft leaves the Kuiper Belt. We also view with alarm NASA’s intention to replace the New Horizons science team with a new team.

New Horizons was built, launched, and paid for, at a cost of almost $1B to the taxpayer, specifically to explore Pluto and the ancient bodies of the Sun’s Kuiper Belt. After a decade-long journey following launch, it reached this distant, scientific wonderland in 2015, and will remain there until 2028. Prematurely truncating the spacecraft’s exploration there, when it is still in the Kuiper Belt, is both a fiscal and scientific waste, and sets a bad precedent for NASA.

The New Horizons team, particularly its science team and science leadership team, have done a magnificent job at every stage of this important and impressive project, and they continue to do so. Recent discussions at NASA surrounding replacing this team, in part or in whole, are both misguided and unfair, and would set a bad precedent for NASA.

As the first and only planned spacecraft exploration of the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons is a jewel in the Nation’s and NASA’s portfolio of space leadership. We the undersigned ask NASA, the Administration, and Congress to reverse course on both of these important matters.

James Adams
Past Deputy Director, NASA Planetary Science Division

Greg Autry
Past NASA Transition Team Member
Past White House Liaison at NASA

Jim Bell
Planetary Scientist
Past President, The Planetary Society

Geoff Briggs
Past Director, NASA Solar System Exploration Division

Bill Diamond
President, The SETI Institute

Ann Druyan
Author, Co-Founder, Carl Sagan Institute
Writer/Director/Producer “COSMOS”

Louis D. Friedman
Founding Executive Director, The Planetary Society

Richard Garriott
President, The Explorers Club

Lori Garver
Past Deputy Administrator, NASA

James L. Green
Past Director, NASA Planetary Science Division
Past Chief Scientist, NASA

Gerry D. Griffin
Past Director, NASA Johnson Space Center

Jeffrey Hall
Director, Lowell Observatory

Candice Hansen-Koharcheck
Planetary Scientist
Past Chair, American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences
Past Chair, NASA Outer Planets Assessment Group

Homer Hickam
Author
Past Member, NASA Advisory Council

Wesley T. Huntress
Past Director, NASA Solar System Exploration Division
Past Associate Administrator, NASA Office of Space Science
Past President, The Planetary Society

Sir Brian May
Astrophysicist and Lead Guitar of Queen

Todd May
Past Director, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Melissa McGrath
Planetary Scientist
Past Deputy Director, NASA Planetary Science Division
Past Chair, American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences

Bill Nye
CEO, The Planetary Society

William F. Readdy
Past Associate Administrator, NASA Office of Space Flight

Adam Riess
Nobel Laureate

Kathryn D. Sullivan
Past Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Past Vice Chair, National Science Board

Mark V. Sykes
President and CEO, Planetary Science Institute
Past Chair, American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences
Past Chair, NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group

Faith Vilas
Planetary Scientist
Chair, NASA New Horizons 2022 Planetary Mission Senior Review Panel
Past Chair, American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences
Past Chair, NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group

George Whitesides
Past Chief of Staff, NASA”