NASA Sets Sights on First Pluto Mission

[SirUlli]

New Horizons is the first mission to the last planet - the initial reconnaissance of Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt - sent out to explore the mysterious worlds at the edge of our solar system.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

and

Of the nine recognized major planets in our solar system, Pluto alone remains unvisited by a man-made craft. New Horizons, the first of NASA's "New Frontiers" missions, was selected by NASA to fill this gaping hole in the exploration of our own solar system. Scheduled to launch January 17, 2006, New Horizons' journey will last at least 9 years and possibly as long as 15 years. After a fly-by of Pluto and its moon Charon, New Horizons will continue its flight and visit at least one other Kuiper belt object.

http://planetary.org/explore/topics/new_horizons/

fingers crossed that all goes well

Sir Ulli

 

[Polo]

Thanks for the head up SirUlli.

 

[petrusbroder]

Thanks for the info, SirUlli. Interesting read!

 

[SirUlli]

Scrub! Launch officials scrubbed today's launch of the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft due to high winds at the probe's Cape Canaveral launch pad.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/0601_pluto_newhorizons_archive.html

hope tomorrow we have more luck

Sir Ulli

 

[amdxborg]

Thanx for the cool news SirUlli!

 

[CupCak3]

thanks for the read mate, i've been too wondering when NASA would finally send something out to check out pluto. It'll be intersting what willn be found

 

[SirUlli]

Maryland storms delay New Horizons launch

Already running a day behind because of high winds in Florida, NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission was grounded today by storms in Maryland that knocked out power to the spacecraft control center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory near Washington.

An emergency generator kicked in to keep the control center in operation, but spacecraft managers were not comfortable proceeding with a launch attempt today without a backup system in place
...

Full Story

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av010/060118delay.html

Sir Ulli

 

[CheesePoofs]

Grr. I really hope they get to launch it tomorrow.

On an unrelated note, I think that NASA should have a big red button to launch the spacecraft. It could be monitored by the comptuer system, so taht if it was pressed to early the computer would launch the spacecraft by itself, and if it wasn't pressed in time the computer would take over also (read: it wouldn't actually launch the craft, the computer would). They could then sell the opertunity to press the button for each launch, preferably for billions of dollars. Then NASA gets some more money and a few very, very rich people get the satisfaction of pressing a big red button (which we all know is one of hte most satisfying things to do).

 

[Spacehead]

I guess they also wanted to try & program in some time to take a few pictures of Pluto's newly discovered other 2 moons. first i'd heard about that.

In late 2005, a team using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two additional tiny moons orbiting Pluto. Provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, they will be assigned real names when the discovery is confirmed. They are estimated to be between 60 and 200 kilometers in diameter.

More here

 

[SirUlli]

To Pluto and Beyond...Pluto probe lifts off

NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto is underway. The spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 2 p.m. EST today

Full Story

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

The New Horizons spacecraft will cross the entire span of the solar system and conduct flyby studies of Pluto and Charon in 2015

see us in 2015

Sir Ulli

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I've been wondering when they planned on finally lauching this thing.

 

[amdxborg]

Cool thanx SirUlli!

 

[SirUlli]

but we have to look at the next step, never sleeping and look at the future

The Kepler Mission

... NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.

more Info

http://www.seti.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=194993&ct=1797097

regards
Sir Ulli