[meteorite-list] New Horizons Team Remembers Patsy Tombaugh

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:12:08 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201201172012.q0HKC8jf021116_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20120116.php

New Horizons Team Remembers Patsy Tombaugh
January 16, 2012

It was January 2006, just days before the New Horizons spacecraft lifted
off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. A reporter asked
Patsy Tombaugh, widow of Pluto's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, what her
husband might have thought about the first mission to the planet he
found in 1930.

"He'd be very happy about it," she said, "because he'd really want to
know what they were finding out about Pluto."

Today, the team fulfilling that wish mourns Patsy Tombaugh, who died
Jan. 12 in Las Cruces, N.M. She was 99.

"I will never forget Patsy's enthusiasm in New Horizons and her pride in
what we're doing," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator,
from the Southwest Research Institute. "I'll also never forget her smile
and winning way. On behalf of the entire New Horizons team, I want to
express our condolences to Patsy's family and friends, and to say that
when we explore Pluto in three years, she will be as much on our minds
and in our hearts, as she is today."

Patricia "Patsy" Edson met Clyde Tombaugh in the spring of 1933; her
older brother James and Clyde were astronomy majors at the University of
Kansas, and good friends. They married in June 1934; daughter Annette
was born in 1940 and son Alden in 1945. But, as Patsy wrote in a 2005
New Horizons web story <103105.php>, their "family" seemed much larger.
 
"Living with Clyde Tombaugh was like having the celestial universe in
the next room, but I found it a very good neighbor," she wrote.

"Of course, I always had to share Clyde not only with Mars, Jupiter, the
Moon, and stars, but also with the public. As the Space Age grew so did
Clyde's fan mail. From all over this world came letters from all age
groups asking for information or autographs. He once said that he had
received at least 30,000 letters. He tried to answer each one."

Patsy at Launch <pictures/20120116_Patsy at Launch.jpg>
*Awaiting the launch of the New Horizons spacecraft from Kennedy Space
Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in January 2006, Patsy
Tombaugh points toward Pluto. */(Image: Michael Soluri)/

Clyde died in 1997. In addition to her son and daughter, Patsy is
survived by five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one
great-great-grandchild. A memorial service is planned for Feb. 12 in Las
Cruces.

Read other tributes to Patsy Tombaugh

    * Alan Boyle, MSNBC "Cosmic Log"
      <http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/15/10159670-in-memoriam-patsy-tombaugh-widow-of-plutos-discoverer>

    * Las Cruces Sun-News
      <http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_19735534>
Received on Tue 17 Jan 2012 03:12:08 PM PST