NASA's New Horizons probe faces shutdown threat
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft—the one that gave us our first real look at Pluto—might be forced to end its mission early.
The White House announced in May a $6 billion cut to NASA's budget, and the planetary science division could lose nearly a third of its funding.
If these cuts go through, missions like New Horizons may have to wrap up before finishing their planned work.
New Horizons has made some epic discoveries
Since launching in 2006, New Horizons has made some epic discoveries: it spotted cryovolcanoes and possible underground oceans on Pluto in 2015, then flew by Arrokoth in the Kuiper Belt in 2019.
It was supposed to keep exploring until at least 2029.
NASA's Nicola Fox says missions like this are key for understanding our solar system, and Principal Investigator Alan Stern points out there aren't any replacements lined up.
After traveling over 9 billion miles and still sending back data, it'd be a real loss if New Horizons had to power down now.