National Space Agency Confirms Rumors of Manned Mission to Pluto

Salt Lake City – April 1, 2013 – After nearly a year of rumors and speculation among astronomy and space aeronautics organizations worldwide, the National Space Agency (NSA) confirmed today that a manned deep-space mission to the distant sub-planet Pluto is, in fact, currently underway.

In an early morning briefing outside the NSA’s headquarters in Washington D.C., NSA’s chairman, Charles Haskell, corroborated what many felt needed to be publicly acknowledged. “There is, in fact, a manned mission to Pluto in progress and has been for a year. Due to circumstances that will later be revealed in detail – because of both national security and the security of our crew – it was critical that the mission remain classified until now.”

“This mission follows in the footsteps of NASA’s Voyager 1 Mission, launched in 1977; it’s twin Mission, Voyager 2, also launched in 1977, and the Recent Horizons Mission, launched in 2006” stated NSA’s press secretary Jared McPherson.

The Recent Horizons Mission is approaching the half-way point between Earth and Pluto and is expected to approach Pluto and its moons in July of 2015.

“This mission is obviously different,” McPherson continued. “A manned mission is infinitely more complicated not just logistically, but because it carries Earth’s most precious cargo – human lives – on a 10.4 billion-mile roundtrip journey.”

The manned mission carries four crewmembers who have yet to be identified, and the mission’s primary objective remains classified.

“Among other goals, this mission seeks to confirm our understanding of the heliosphere and how the spacecraft’s radioisotope thermal electric generators (RTGs) function at such great distances from our sun.”

Similar to the Red Bull beverage company’s financial support of Felix Baumgartner’s record-shattering space jump, Utah-based restaurant chain Arctic Circle is the primary financial contributor to this effort.

“Without Arctic Circle’s significant funding, this mission would be just another far-fetched aspiration, and we are very thankful for their support,” said the mission’s Chief Ground Controller, Preston Wood. “The crew is in good spirits, and we’re looking forward to the untold number of discoveries they will make.”

For more information about the mission, visit Mission2Pluto.com.