NASA's Pluto Mission Launched Toward New Horizons

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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