Editing Pluto Kuiper Express (section)

{{Short description|Cancelled NASA flyby mission to Pluto}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox spaceflight
| name                  = ''Pluto Kuiper Express''
| image                 = Pluto express.jpg
| image_caption         = Artist's impression of ''Pluto Kuiper Express'' encountering the [[Pluto]]–[[Charon (moon)|Charon]] system
| image_size            = 300px
| names_list            = ''Pluto Fast Flyby'' (1992–1995)<br>''Pluto Kuiper Express'' (1995–2000)

| mission_type          = [[Pluto]] flyby
| operator              = [[NASA]]
| mission_duration      = Cancelled

| manufacturer          = 
| launch_mass           = {{cvt|220|kg|lb}}{{r|nssdc}}
| payload_mass          = {{cvt|7|kg|lb}}{{r|nssdc}}
| power                 = 228&nbsp;watts

| launch_date           = December 2004
| launch_rocket         = [[Delta II]] or [[Space Shuttle]]

| trans_bandwidth       = 5-Mbit/s

| interplanetary        = 
  {{Infobox spaceflight/IP
   |type            = flyby
   |object          = [[Jupiter]]
   |arrival_date    = April–June 2006{{r|nssdc}}
  }}
  {{Infobox spaceflight/IP
   |type            = flyby
   |object          = [[Pluto]]
   |arrival_date    = December 2012{{r|nssdc}}
   |distance        = {{cvt|15000|km|mi}}
  }}
}}

'''''Pluto Kuiper Express''''' was an interplanetary [[space probe]] that was proposed by [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL) scientists and engineers and under development by [[NASA]]. The spacecraft was intended to be launched to study [[Pluto]] and its moon [[Charon (moon)|Charon]], along with one or more other [[Kuiper Belt|Kuiper belt]] objects (KBOs). The proposal was the third of its kind, after the ''Pluto 350'' and a proposal to send a [[Mariner Mark II]] spacecraft to Pluto.

Originally conceived as ''Pluto Fast Flyby'', and later briefly named ''Pluto Express'', the mission was inspired by a 1991 [[United States Postal Service]] stamp that branded Pluto as "Not Yet Explored". The project brought on JPL engineers and students from the [[California Institute of Technology]] and, later, [[Alan Stern]] and other scientists from the Pluto 350 project. While the project was initiated in 1992, the project's development phase was lengthy, spending nearly a decade in the proposal and funding stage. During planning, the mission was changed to include a Kuiper belt object flyby and re-christened the ''Pluto Kuiper Express'', after the discovery of numerous such objects beyond [[Neptune]] in the mid-to-late 1990s. NASA ultimately decided to cancel the mission in 2000, however, citing the project's expanding budget as the ultimate reason for the cancellation.{{r|NYT-20010213}}

After the mission's cancellation, most of the ''Pluto Fast Flyby'' team, including Stern, went on to develop ''[[New Horizons]]'', a mission nearly identical to ''Pluto Kuiper Express'', for NASA's [[New Frontiers program]]. The spacecraft was successfully launched in January 2006, after a financial standoff with NASA and additional delays, and went on to perform the first ever flyby of the Pluto–Charon system in July 2015.