Mission approved
NASA selects the New Horizons proposal from Southwest Research Institute for a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt System. Director of SRI space studies:
We’ll be exploring frontier worlds near the edge of the planetary system. This mission is likely to rewrite textbooks regarding the origin of the planets, the nature of the outer solar system, and even the origin of primitive materials that may have played a role in the development of life.
Faster arrival
As the New Horizons team studies the mission and their launch window, they realize that they can get the probe to Pluto a year earlier than anticipated.
This [is] a great opportunity to improve our scientific return while reducing mission risks and costs. We’ll get a better look at Pluto itself, since more of the surface will be sunlit and the atmosphere will be another year away from freezing onto the planet’s surface. We’ll have more fuel for the journey into the Kuiper Belt after exploring Pluto-Charon, and the shorter cruise time reduces some of the costs associated with flight operations.
Passes first review
The mission passes its first major review by technical experts who say that it is on track.
The Systems Requirements Review confirmed that New Horizons is making progress on spacecraft and scientific instrument design, and that we are ready to proceed toward the mission confirmation reviews that NASA is requesting.
Passes second review
The team completes its second major system-level evaluation. Experts study the mission plan and spacecraft design and conclude that the project is ready to proceed. Review panel:
New Horizons has validated its preliminary design and the team can move ahead with more detailed design activities.
Construction authorized
After NASA’s team of experts conducted a detailed, in-depth review of every facet of the mission plans and design, they authorize the construction of the New Horizons probe and ground systems.
This is a truly historic step forward. For the first time, NASA is undertaking a mission to explore Pluto-Charon and the distant reaches of the solar system beyond Neptune. This kind of frontier exploration is one of the important ways that NASA and the American space program lead the world. Our team is proud of the authorization NASA has given us to proceed and we’re reminded by the responsibility on our shoulders to make this mission a success.
Atlas V to launch probe
NASA chooses the Atlas V expendable launch vehicle to launch the New Horizons probe into space. The launch is planned for January 2006.
Probe shipped
John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the New Horizons probe, ships it to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for its next round of pre-launch testing. APL Project manager:
Our testing program is off to a good start. We’ve shown that New Horizons is structurally ready for the ride on the launch vehicle, and now we’ll test it in the full range of conditions it would face on the voyage to Pluto, Pluto’s moon, Charon, and beyond.
Probe arrives at Space Center
The New Horizons one thousand pound probe arrives at the Kennedy Space Center for final preparations and testing before its launch.
Payload ready
The payload of seven science instruments completes its last major preparations for flight.
Although the hard work on the instrument development and testing is over, the work never stops. We’ll only stop worrying once we’ve achieved full mission success, but we’re thrilled that the payload is ready for flight…The New Horizons payload is a remarkably compact, but powerful suite of instruments that will revolutionize our knowledge of Pluto, its large moon Charon and bodies farther out in the Kuiper Belt.
The instruments include:
Alice, an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer that will probe the atmospheric composition and structure of Pluto.
Ralph, a visible and infrared camera that will obtain high-resolution color maps and surface composition maps of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.
LORRI, or Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, will image Pluto’s surface at football-field sized resolution, resolving features as small approximately 50 yards across.
SWAP, or Solar Wind Around Pluto, will measure charged particles from the solar wind near Pluto to determine whether it has a magnetosphere and how fast its atmosphere is escaping.
PEPSSI, or Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, will search for neutral atoms that escape the planet’s atmosphere and subsequently become charged by their interaction with the solar wind.
SDC, or Student Dust Counter, will count and measure the masses of dust particles along the spacecraft’s entire trajectory, covering regions of interplanetary space never before sampled.
REX, or Radio Science EXperiment, a circuit board containing sophisticated electronics that has been integrated with the spacecraft’s radio telecommunications system, will study Pluto’s atmospheric structure, surface thermal properties, and make measurements of the mass of Pluto and Charon and KBOs.
Launch delayed
Just two minutes and 42 seconds before the booster engines are to fire, flight controllers halt the launch of the New Horizons probe due to high ground winds which may compromise the safety of the launch. NASA:
We chose not to launch today because the ground winds were just a bit too high. The wind limit at the pad is 33 knots [and] we have exceeded that limit several times today.
Launch delayed again
Severe storms knock out power to the New Horizons mission control center at John Hopkins University in Maryland. Although they have backup power, the team wants to be sure they have enough backup before proceeding with critical operations like launching and early flight operations. They decide to delay the launch for the following day.
We’ve been working on this for 17 years so I don’t think a couple of days are going to hurt us.
Launch successful
The Atlas V rocket with the New Horizons probe is launched successfully. After 44 minutes and 53 seconds it separates from its solid-fuel kick motor. Five minutes later mission control receives the first signals from the probe that all is well. The fastest probe ever launched is hurtling through space at 36,000 mph on its three billion journey to Pluto. NASA:
Today, NASA began an unprecedented journey of exploration to the ninth planet in the solar system. 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.
Tracks asteroid
In order to test its tracking and imaging capabilities, the probe tracks and photographs asteroid 2002 JF56 in the asteroid belt coming to within 102,000 km. The asteroid is about 2.5 km in diameter.
The asteroid observation was a flight test, a chance for us to test the spacecraft’s ability to track a rapidly moving object and to refine our sequencing process. The objects we will observe this winter in the Jupiter system will appear to be moving across the sky much more slowly than this asteroid, so these observations were an unexpected opportunity to prepare for the even faster tracking rates we’ll experience in summer 2015, when the spacecraft zips through the Pluto system at more than 31,000 miles per hour.
The probe is now 283 million km (176 million miles) from Earth traveling at 27 km (17 miles) per second relative to the sun.
Jupiter images
New Horizons probe takes its first pictures of Jupiter with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) from 291 million km (181 million miles) away.
LORRI’s first Jupiter image is all we could have expected. We see belts, zones and large storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere. We see the Jovian moons Io and Europa, as well as the shadows they cast on Jupiter. It is most gratifying to detect these moons against the glare from Jupiter.
Sees Pluto
The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) takes its first photos of Pluto from 4.2 billion km (2.6 billion miles) away. At this distance Pluto is just a faint point of light among the stars.
Finding Pluto in this dense star field really was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. LORRI passed this test with flying colors, because Pluto’s signal was clearly detected at 30 to 40 times the noise level in the images.
Jupiter rendezvous
New Horizons rendezvous with Jupiter begins with black-and-white photos of Jupiter and infrared images of its moon Callisto. The probe is 81 million km (50 million miles) from the planet.
Our ground team has worked very hard to get to this point. Now the curtain is rising on the next stage of Jupiter-system exploration. It’s exciting!
Observes solar wind
New Horizons’ SWAP instrument sends back data on the solar wind around Jupiter. From a distance of 40 million miles, it observes an immense structure of compressed, dense, hot ionized gas that forms in the solar wind, called a co-rotating interaction region.
These solar wind structures collide with the magnetospheres of planets and, we believe, cause major variations in their structures. Because it has the largest magnetosphere in the solar system, the effects of the solar wind at Jupiter could have significant implications for all the planets.
Io eruption
From 4 million km (2.5 million miles) away, New Horizons’ LORRI instrument photos Io’s Tvashtar volcano erupting. Jupiter’s tidal interaction with Io heats it up and causes it to be volcanically active. The bright photo shows Tvashtar erupting a huge dust plume at the 11 o’clock position. The bumps at the 2 o’clock position are tall mountains. The darker photo shows surface features of Io.
This is the best image of a large volcanic plume on Io since the Voyager flybys in 1979.
Little Red Spot
New Horizons’ LORRI snaps a picture of the Little Red Spot from 3 million km (1.8 million miles).
These LORRI images of the Little Red Spot are amazing in their detail. They show the early stages of this newly reddened storm system with a resolution that far surpasses anything available until now.
Jupiter gravity boost
New Horizons makes its closest approach to Jupiter at a distance of 2.3 million km (1.4 million miles) passing through an aim point just 500 miles across in order to get a gravity assist that will boost its speed toward Pluto. The probe gains almost 14,000 km/h (9,000 mph) accelerating to over 83,600 km/h (52,000 mph). It has traveled 800 million km (500 million miles).
We’re on our way to Pluto. The swingby was a success; the spacecraft is on course and performed just as we expected.