he National Academy of Sciences has ranked the exploration of the Kuiper Belt – including Pluto – of the highest priority for solar system exploration.
The United States has been the first nation to reach every planet from Mercury to Neptune with a space probe. If New Horizons is successful, it will allow the U.S. to complete the initial reconnaissance of the solar system.
Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), leads the mission team. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) manages the mission for NASA, and designed, built and operates the spacecraft. SwRI is responsible for science payload operations, and data reduction and archiving, and participates in the science team. The mission team also includes KinetX, Inc. (navigation team), Ball Aerospace Corporation, the Boeing Company, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford University, Lockheed Martin Corporation, University of Colorado, the U.S. Department of Energy and a number of other firms, NASA centers and university partners.