Posted: Wed, Aug 4, 2004, 7:44 PM ET (2344 GMT)
A work stoppage at a national laboratory that processes plutonium could delay the launch of a NASA mission to Pluto, NASA officials said Tuesday. All classified activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico stopped in mid-July because of an investigation into missing computer media that contained classified data. That stoppage affects work the lab was doing converting plutonium-238 purchased from Russia into pellets to be used in a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) that will power NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in January 2006 but the RTG must be delivered by this December to allow time to test the unit and install it on the spacecraft. If the RTG is late it could delay the launch on year, which could in turn delay the spacecraft's arrival by as much as four years as Jupiter would no longer be in position to provide a gravity assist. The delay could also add $100 million to the cost of the mission, SpaceRef reported. NASA officials said they should have a better idea by mid-August when the RTG work could resume.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  SpaceRef article