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[i]The New Horizons team is working to get the planetary component extended. They also want to keep experienced mission scientists in place. Although the RFI doesn't state it directly, the wording seems to suggest that the Science Mission Directorate is looking to replace the current science team with new groups of scientists who will propose heliophysics science for the spacecraft moving forward. These researchers would not be as familiar with the mission instruments. Something like this has never been done to any spacecraft team before, said [Principal Investigator Alan] Stern. He fears that if new people are brought in to run the mission, the current team will be sent packing, unfunded and unaffiliated with the spacecraft they worked to build, launch, and operate. And, the loss to science is incalculable. "If they shut it down as a planetary mission, it will be the end of Kuiper Belt exploration for several decades," he said. "Cutting us off prematurely is exactly counter to what the Decadal Survey recommended."[/i]
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