Kudos for Pluto

The National Air and Space Museum presents a trophy each year recognizing both past and present achivements involving the management or execution of a scientific or technological project, a distinguished career or service in air and space technology, or a significant contribution in chronicling the history of air and space technology. This year’s Current Achievement trophy award goes to NASA’s New Horizons Mission Team. As the Museum’s citation notes, in part:

The New Horizons Mission Team, led by Principal Investigator Alan Stern, has accomplished the first direct investigation of Kuiper Belt objects in the outer solar system. The scientific return from the Pluto-Charon system has already been spectacular: the wide diversity of terrains and the young ages of some of them is causing scientists to re-think how planets form and evolve. New Horizons imaged water-ice mountains as high as the Rockies, giant sheets of exotic ices that exhibit glacier-like flow, and chasms deeper and wider than the Grand Canyon. The mission is yielding fundamental insights into the origins and evolution of the solar system.

Read more here about New Horizons at Pluto, and also about the team, here.