NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Selected as Program Office for Discovery and New Frontiers Initiatives to Explore the Solar System

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. has been selected as
the site of NASA’s Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office.

The Discovery and New Frontiers office provides opportunities for the
science community to propose full investigations to be conducted under a
fixed price cost cap — an initiative designed to address high-priority
exploration initiatives in the Solar System.

Discovery and New Frontiers investigations are the responsibility of NASA
Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Marshall program office will assist the
Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters with program management,
technology planning, systems assessment, flight assurance and public
outreach.

“We at Marshall Center are excited about being selected to assist the
Science Mission Directorate with the management of the Discovery and New
Frontiers Program for NASA,” said Marshall Center Director David King. “The
program comprises some of the most exciting missions in Solar System
exploration. The Discovery and New Frontiers programs provide opportunities
for science robotic missions that lay the groundwork for future exploration
of the Solar System and beyond,” King said.

The Marshall Center will assure the availability of the technical expertise
to quickly assess needs and manage the required support structure to provide
oversight to these missions, and have access to technical expertise that can
be made readily available to principal investigators.

The Discovery initiative includes focused, scientific investigations that
complement NASA’s larger planetary exploration. Its goal is to launch
numerous small missions with a faster development phase — each for
considerably less than the cost of larger missions. The Discovery program
has launched numerous missions to date, including the Mars Pathfinder, Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker, and Genesis missions.

The New Frontiers initiative addresses high-priority investigations
identified by the National Academy of Sciences. NASA’s first New Frontiers
mission is called New Horizons, which will fly by the Pluto-Charon system in
2014, and then target other Kuiper belt objects. NASA recently selected two
mission proposals under the New Frontiers program for pre-formulation study,
leading to a selection of the second New Frontiers mission in May, 2005.