However, the APL, in addition to being supported by " Pluto Kuiper Express " developers at the Goddard Space Flight Center and Stanford University,
During planning, the mission was changed to include a Kuiper belt object flyby and re-christened the " Pluto Kuiper Express ", after the discovery of numerous such objects beyond Neptune in the mid-to-late 1990s.
After the mission's cancellation, most of the " Pluto Fast Flyby " team, including Stern, went on to develop " New Horizons ", a mission nearly identical to " Pluto Kuiper Express ", for NASA's New Frontiers program.
""'Pluto Kuiper Express " "'was an interplanetary space probe that was proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) scientists and engineers and under development by NASA . The spacecraft was intended to be launched to study Pluto and its moon Kuiper belt objects ( KBOs ).
The cancellation of Pluto Kuiper Express angered some of the space-exploration scientific community, which led to groups, such as " The Planetary Society ", lobbying NASA for a reboot of " Pluto Kuiper Express " or, at the very least, a restart of a mission to Pluto.
The cancellation of Pluto Kuiper Express angered some of the space-exploration scientific community, which led to groups, such as " The Planetary Society ", lobbying NASA for a reboot of " Pluto Kuiper Express " or, at the very least, a restart of a mission to Pluto.
Appointed as the project's principal investigator, Stern was described by Krimigis as " the personification of the Pluto mission " . " New Horizons " was based largely on Stern's work since " Pluto 350 " and involved most of the team from " Pluto Kuiper Express ".
In response to the backlash caused by the cancellation of " Pluto Kuiper Express ", it was decided to inaugurate a new class of missions that would fit between the big-budget Flagship Program and the low-budget Discovery Program, creating a compromise for missions such as the former " Pluto Kuiper Express ", which proved to be too expensive for the Discovery Program.
In response to the backlash caused by the cancellation of " Pluto Kuiper Express ", it was decided to inaugurate a new class of missions that would fit between the big-budget Flagship Program and the low-budget Discovery Program, creating a compromise for missions such as the former " Pluto Kuiper Express ", which proved to be too expensive for the Discovery Program.