Alan Stern – Spaceflight Now

Two NASA probes catch first glimpses of primordial targets

August 29, 2018 Stephen Clark

Two NASA spacecraft — the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and the New Horizons probe at the edge of the solar system — have captured their first looks at their targets as they approach a pair of primordial relics for the first time.

New Horizons’ next target might be a binary pair

August 8, 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground observations of the New Horizons spacecraft’s next target last month revealed the distant object, lurking in the outer solar system more than four billion miles from Earth, might have an unconventional elongated shape, or even consist of two icy bodies orbiting one another in an age-old cosmic dance.

Trump signs order reviving long-dormant National Space Council

June 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

Emphasizing commercial, technological and national security opportunities in space, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday re-establishing the National Space Council, a space policy advisory and steering group that was last active nearly 25 years ago.

Final Pluto data transmission received from flyby probe

October 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

The last bits of data collected during NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s speedy flyby of Pluto last year are back on Earth, scientists said Thursday, marking the official end of the probe’s prime mission.

Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists

January 5, 2016 William Harwood

Nearly six months after NASA’s New Horizons probe zoomed past Pluto, just one quarter of the data stored on board has made its way back to waiting scientists, revealing a surprisingly varied terrain that includes glacial flows and steep mountains of frozen water floating in a “sea” of slush-like nitrogen ice.

Initial Pluto flyby science results published

October 16, 2015 William Harwood

The first scientific review of data collected during the New Horizons flyby of Pluto describe a small world with a thin but surprisingly complex atmosphere and a variety of surface features, ranging from ancient impact craters to geologically recent glaciers and other structures that reflect widespread resurfacing.

Scientists thrilled with mountains on Pluto, chasms on Charon

July 15, 2015 William Harwood

Images from NASA’s New Horizons probe show Pluto is a surprisingly active world in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, with jagged 11,000-foot-high mountains of frozen water dusted with a veneer of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ice amid smooth plains and jumbled terrain.

Pluto stakes claim as ‘King of the Kuiper Belt’

July 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

Using high-fidelity modeling and image analysis to resolve Pluto’s exact shape, scientists examining pictures from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft said Monday they have confirmed Pluto is the largest known object in a frozen outer zone of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt.

Clear sailing expected for Pluto flyby

July 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

There is no sign of an undiscovered moon lurking around Pluto in data streaming back to Earth from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, and that is surprising to Alan Stern, the scientist in charge of the probe.

Question time with Alan Stern, the Pluto evangelist

July 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

July is a month of rich rewards for Alan Stern, the scientist who shepherded the New Horizons spacecraft from the drawing board to Pluto, and the payoff will be sweet.