Pluto Probe Looks Good

NASA scientists did a instrument check and it looks as though everything is running smoothly for the New Horizon probe which is heading toward the planet Pluto. The spacecraft had six out of its seven instruments turned on to check their health and functionality. The last instrument to be tested is called the Long Range Reconnaissance (LORRI) which has wait to be tested until the New Horizon does a flyby of Jupiter around October 2006 because it is so sensitive it needs darker deeper space.

“We’re very heavily invested in the Jupiter science planning,” said Alan Stern executive director of the space science and engineering division at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, adding that mission planners need to have the observation sequences of that flyby ready by October 2006. “We have a pretty tight schedule, and we still have some spacecraft checkout to do. But we’re above 90 percent now.”

The New Horizon is scheduled to reach its final destination Pluto in the year 2015

NASA scientists did a instrument check and it looks as though everything is running smoothly for the New Horizon probe which is heading toward the planet Pluto. The spacecraft had six out of its seven instruments turned on to check their health and functionality. The last instrument to be tested is called the Long Range Reconnaissance (LORRI) which has wait to be tested until the New Horizon does a flyby of Jupiter around October 2006 because it is so sensitive it needs darker deeper space.

“We’re very heavily invested in the Jupiter science planning,” said Alan Stern executive director of the space science and engineering division at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, adding that mission planners need to have the observation sequences of that flyby ready by October 2006. “We have a pretty tight schedule, and we still have some spacecraft checkout to do. But we’re above 90 percent now.”

The New Horizon is scheduled to reach its final destination Pluto in the year 2015