I think we really need a mercury orbiter...Given a choice, I would rather see mercury studied in detail than Pluto...But then that's just my opinion...of course.

I believe to two getting fairly close to launching, the same can't be said about Pluto. Well, I guess do a search and check when. Hmm.
About 6 months from now:
"1. When, and from where, will MESSENGER launch?

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch during a 20-day window that opens March 10, 2004, aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. MESSENGER also has a backup launch window from May 13-22, 2004."
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/faq/faq_journey.html#1
I forget what the other one is called, I think european space is launching it. Hmm. According to this it is later than I thought:
"Russian Soyuz rockets would launch the probes in space shots starting in 2010. The probes would reach Mercury about four years later, with one of them landing on the planet, and the other two orbiting and charting its surface for a year. "
http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,6651905,00.html
It a long time in future to be counting on it.
More on ESA mercury mission:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/Pr_40_1999_p_EN.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mercury-99d.html

And Pluto mission is scheduled for 2006 (if it doesn't slip).