NASA SELECTS TWO INVESTIGATIONS FOR

PLUTO-KUIPER BELT MISSION FEASIBILITY STUDIES

In the first step of a potential two-step process, NASA has selected two proposals for detailed mission feasibility studies as candidates for a Pluto-Kuiper Belt (PKB) mission to explore the only planet in our Solar System yet to be visited by a spacecraft from Earth.

NASA GIVES OFFICIAL NOD TO FIRST MERCURY ORBITER MISSION

RELEASE: 01-118

NASA has given the first Mercury orbiter mission the go-ahead to move into full-scale spacecraft development -- setting up the first trip to the Sun's closest neighbor in more than a generation.

MESSENGER, short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, will launch in March 2004 and orbit Mercury for one Earth-year beginning in April 2009.