JHUAPL – Page 7 – Spaceflight Now

New Horizons gets last look at Pluto’s mystery spots

July 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

The New Horizons spacecraft has captured its last view of mysterious dark blotches strung across Pluto’s equator, and the spots will likely keep scientists guessing about their origin for decades to come.

Pluto probe provides appetizer for next week’s flyby

July 9, 2015 Stephen Clark

Living up to promises that the view from New Horizons will only get better, the Pluto-bound spacecraft has again bested itself with a dazzling color view of Pluto and Charon released Thursday.

Back in action, New Horizons returns fresh view of Pluto

July 8, 2015 Stephen Clark

The New Horizons spacecraft speeding toward Pluto has returned a new image of the icy world lurking at the solar system’s outer frontier — the first photo beamed back to Earth since the probe suspended science operations Saturday.

New Horizons back in business after weekend scare

July 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

Fully recovered from a computer hiccup that disrupted science observations this weekend, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will resume imaging of Pluto on Tuesday, a week before the plutonium-powered probe zooms less than 7,800 miles from the unexplored dwarf planet at the frontier of the solar system.

New Horizons two weeks from Pluto flyby

June 30, 2015 William Harwood

NASA’s New Horizons probe, now just 10 million miles from Pluto and 14 days from a historic July 14 flyby, is operating in near flawless fashion, making increasingly detailed observations of the enigmatic dwarf planet and its large moon Charon, project engineers and scientists reported Tuesday.

New Horizons in good shape approaching Pluto

June 23, 2015 William Harwood

Now just three weeks from its historic flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is close enough to detect objects smaller and dimmer than the dwarf planet’s smallest known moon and so far, nothing has been spotted that would pose a threat to the probe as it barrels through the system at more than 30,000 mph, scientists said Tuesday.

Messenger mission ends with plunge into Mercury

April 30, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft closed out a successful four-year tour in Mercury’s orbit Thursday with a cataclysmic crash into the scorching planet after consuming its last gasps of fuel.

Delta 4-Heavy selected for launch of solar probe

March 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

A NASA spacecraft that will fly closer to the sun than any mission before will launch on a Delta 4-Heavy rocket in 2018, requiring a boost from the largest active launcher in the U.S. inventory and repeated flybys around Venus to reach an operating post inside the solar atmosphere.

Pluto-bound probe tweaks its trajectory

March 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft fine-tuned its path toward Pluto on Tuesday, firing its rocket thrusters for 93 seconds to aim for a fleeting flyby of the distant dwarf planet July 14.

NASA’s Pluto probe takes new pictures of target

February 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

Less than six months from a historic close-up of Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has glimpsed its distant target at a range of 126 million miles, and better pictures are coming.