supporting the proposal.

By 1995, the proposed mission was known as Pluto Express, and pre-project manager Robert Staehle of JPL suggested a budget "in the neighborhood of $300 million". At this point the mission was still to have been twin spacecraft, and it was hoped it could be launched in 1998. NASA tried to negotiate with Russia for use of Proton rockets to launch the spacecraft, in exchange for carrying Russian "Drop Zond" probes to Pluto.