Space mission · United States

What did NASA estimate for the full New Horizons baseline mission before launch?

New Horizons carried NASA's first spacecraft to Pluto and onward into the Kuiper Belt. Its December 2005 launch press kit estimated about US$700 million for the full 2001–2016 baseline mission, including spacecraft and instruments, the launch vehicle, operations, data analysis and outreach. It is a pre-launch programme estimate, not a bill for the spacecraft alone or the later extended mission.

Published project estimate

$700 million

Cost basis: 2005

In the clean room at KSC’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, technicians prepare the New Horizons spacecraft for a media event. Photographers and reporters will be able to photograph the New Horizons spacecraft and talk with project management and test team members from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The RTG seen in this picture is not the real flying unit and is only a mockup. The real RTG was installed shortly before launch.
NASAPublic domain

Cost evidence

Basis of the published figure

Published project estimate2005
NASA

Project metrics

Key dimensions

MassNASA New Horizons launch press kit
478 kg

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