Editor's Summary
4 August 2005
The long haul
The New Horizons spacecraft, now undergoing pre-flight tests at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is due to launch in January 2006, reaching Pluto and the Kuiper belt in 2015. But the mission almost didn't happen, says Alan Stern, NASA's principal investigator on the project.
News Feature: Pluto voyage: A man with a mission
In 2015, Pluto will welcome its first visitor, a robot named New Horizons. Amanda Haag meets the planetary scientist who nursed the mission through its darkest days.
doi:10.1038/436618a