NASA's Pluto Mission Launched Toward New Horizons

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01.19.06

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters
Phone: (202) 358-1726

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Phone: (321) 867-2468 

Michael Buckley
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Phone: (240) 228-7536 

RELEASE: 08-06

NASA'S PLUTO MISSION LAUNCHED TOWARD NEW HORIZONS

The first mission to distant planet Pluto is under way after the 
successful launch today of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft from Cape 
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

New Horizons roared into the afternoon sky aboard a powerful Atlas V 
rocket at 2 p.m. EST. It separated from its solid-fuel kick motor 44 
minutes, 53 seconds after launch, and mission controllers at the 
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, 
Md., where the spacecraft was designed and built, received the first 
radio signals from New Horizons a little more than five minutes 
later. The radio communications, sent through NASA's Deep Space 
Network antennas in Canberra, Australia, confirmed to controllers 
that the spacecraft was healthy and ready to begin initial 
operations.

"Today, NASA began an unprecedented journey of exploration to the 
ninth planet in the solar system," says Dr. Colleen Hartman, Deputy 
Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington, D.C. "Right now, what we know about Pluto could be 
written on the back of a postage stamp. After this mission, we'll be 
able to fill textbooks with new information."

The 1,054-pound, piano-sized spacecraft is the fastest ever launched, 
speeding away from Earth at approximately 36,000 miles per hour, on a 
trajectory that will take it more than 3 billion miles toward its 
primary science target. New Horizons will zip past Jupiter for a 
gravity assist and science studies in February 2007, and conduct the 
first close-up, in-depth study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015. 
As part of a potential extended mission, the spacecraft would then 
examine one or more additional objects in the Kuiper Belt, the region 
of ancient, icy, rocky bodies (including Pluto) far beyond Neptune's 
orbit.

"The United States of America has just made history by launching the 
first spacecraft to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond," says 
Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, from Southwest 
Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "No other nation has this 
capability. This is the kind of exploration that forefathers, like 
Lewis and Clark 200 years ago this year, made a trademark of our 
nation."

Over the next several weeks, mission operators at APL will place the 
spacecraft in flight mode, check out its critical operating systems, 
and perform small propulsive maneuvers to refine its path toward 
Jupiter. Following that, among other operations, the team will begin 
checking and commissioning most of the seven science instruments.

"This is the gateway to a long, exciting journey," says Glen Fountain, 
New Horizons project manager from APL. "The team has worked hard for 
the past four years to get the spacecraft ready for the voyage to 
Pluto and beyond, to places we've never seen up close. This is a 
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, in the tradition of the Mariner, 
Pioneer, and Voyager missions to set out for first looks in our solar 
system."

After the Jupiter encounter -- during which New Horizons will train 
its science instruments on the large planet and its moons -- the 
spacecraft will "sleep" in electronic hibernation for much of the 
cruise to Pluto. Operators will turn off all but the most critical 
electronic systems and check in with the spacecraft once a year to 
check out the critical systems, calibrate the instruments and perform 
course corrections, if necessary.

Between the in-depth checkouts, New Horizons will send back a beacon 
signal each week to give operators an instant read on spacecraft 
health. The entire spacecraft, drawing electricity from a single 
radioisotope thermoelectric generator, operates on less power than a 
pair of 100-watt household light bulbs.

New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program of 
medium-class spacecraft exploration projects. Stern leads the mission 
and science team as principal investigator. APL manages the mission 
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and is operating the 
spacecraft in flight. The mission team also includes Ball Aerospace 
Corporation, the Boeing Company, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford University, KinetX, Inc., 
Lockheed Martin Corporation, University of Colorado, the U.S. 
Department of Energy, and number of other firms, NASA centers, and 
university partners. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space 
Center was responsible for the launch. 

For more information about New Horizons mission on the Web, visit:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

	
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