 "Voyager 2" never had a plausible trajectory for reaching Pluto.Pluto continues to be of great interest, despite its reclassification as the lead and nearest member of a new and growing class of distant icy bodies of intermediate size (and also the first member of the important subclass, defined by orbit and known as "plutinos").After an intense political battle, a mission to Pluto dubbed "New Horizons" was granted funding from the United States government in 2003.