The cost of Pluto’s demotion

Stacey Vanek Smith

17 years ago

TEXT OF STORY

SCOTT JAGOW: Poor Pluto. Yesterday, scientists demoted the ninth rock from the sun. It’s no longer a planet. As Stacey Vanek-Smith reports, this has some Earthly business implications.

STACEY VANEK-SMITH: After 76 years of loyal service as the 9th planet in our solar system, Pluto has been given a pink slip.

And that little celestial shuffle will have a big impact on a lot of Earthly businesses.

Pluto’s demotion will mean having to update textbooks, astronomy books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, not to mention Web sites, software, and those Styrofoam models.

Robert Pearlman is the founder of online retailer, CollectSpace.com.

ROBERT PEARLMAN: Now we’re looking at our inventory and thinking, all these products are going to have to be redone. As a result, we’re thinking about maybe holding a Pluto going out of business sale.

And then there’s NASA. It launched a Pluto-bound probe earlier this year called New Horizons.

The tagline? The 1st mission to the last planet. The price tag? $700 million.

I’m Stacey Vanek-Smith for Marketplace.