[meteorite-list] New Horizons Continues Toward Potential Kuiper Belt Target Spacecraft

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2015 20:52:49 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201511020452.tA24qn5C001541_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151026b

October 26, 2015
New Horizons Continues Toward Potential Kuiper Belt TargetSpacecraft
Team Reports Success in Second of Four Targeting Maneuvers

On Course: Projected path of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft toward 2014
MU69, which orbits in the Kuiper Belt about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto.
Planets are shown in their positions on Jan. 1, 2019, when New Horizons
is projected to reach the small Kuiper Belt object. NASA must approve
an extended mission for New Horizons to study MU69.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has carried out the second in a series
of four maneuvers propelling it toward an encounter with the ancient Kuiper
Belt object 2014 MU69, a billion miles farther from the sun than Pluto.

The targeting maneuver, performed with the spacecraft's hydrazine-fueled
thrusters, started at approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 25,
and lasted about 25 minutes - the largest propulsive maneuver ever conducted
by New Horizons. Spacecraft operators at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, began receiving data through
NASA's Deep Space Network at approximately 8:25 p.m. EDT on Sunday that
indicated a successful maneuver.

All told, the four maneuvers are designed to alter New Horizons' path
to send it toward a close encounter with MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. The flyby
would be part of an extended mission that NASA still must approve; the
New Horizons team will submit a formal proposal to NASA for that mission
in early 2016. The science team hopes to bring the spacecraft closer to
MU69 than it came to Pluto on July 14, which was 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers)

The two remaining KBO targeting maneuvers are scheduled for Oct. 28 and
Nov. 4.

New Horizons, speeding through deep space at more than 32,000 miles per
hour, is approximately 76 million miles (122 million kilometers) beyond
Pluto and 3.16 billion miles (5.09 billion kilometers) from Earth. All
systems are healthy and the spacecraft continues to transmit data stored
on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system in July.

New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the
agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed,
built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute
leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning.
Received on Sun 01 Nov 2015 11:52:49 PM PST