The United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifts off with NASA’s Orion ship on its inaugural space flight test at 7:05 a.m. EST Dec. 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Complex 37.
Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images
Mission Reports
New Horizons scientists elated as Ultima Thule’s shape comes into view
A fresh image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft released Tuesday showed the mission’s distant flyby target a billion miles beyond Pluto — nicknamed Ultima Thule — has an elongated shape like that of a peanut shell or a bowling pin, and the prospect of higher-resolution pictures arriving on Earth later in the day had scientists salivating for more.