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28 Feb, 2007

Jupiter gravity boost

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At just before noon EST on Feb. 28, 2007, (from left) Science Co-investigator John Spencer, Program Scientist Denis Bogan, Project Scientist Hal Weaver, Principal Investigator Alan Stern and Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman applaud upon confirming New Horizons' successful Jupiter flyby in the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.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.

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