New Horizons & Stardust update


Friday, January 06, 2006


New Horizons update

The New Horizons mission to Pluto is still targeting Jan. 17 as a
launch date, NASA says, but the agency has not yet revealed the
details of the fuel-tank analysis engineers completed this week. We're
awaiting the official report from headquarters. The tank on the Atlas
5 rocket was inspected via boroscope to make sure it had not suffered
any signs of stress after fueling during the wet dress rehearsal. The
need for an inspection - and launch delay - arose when testing of
another tank, after many more pressure cycles, caused it to fail when
pushed to its limit. Principal investigator Alan Stern's update on the
New Horizons site says all has been quiet with the spacecraft, other
than loading of final flight parameters in its computers earlier this
week. He also says Jan. 17 is still the target for launch from the
Cape. The window closes Feb. 14, but the craft must launch by Jan. 28
to get to Pluto as early as 2015, with a gravity assist from Jupiter.
Later launch dates push arrival times further into the future. There's
also a backup launch window next year. The latest arrival at Pluto
would be 2020.

posted by Chris Kridler at 1:57 PM

Stardust nearing Earth

A little more than a week from now, the Stardust spacecraft will
release its sample return capsule, filled with particles from comet
Wild 2, for a plunge through the atmosphere to Utah's desert.
Thursday, says NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, the spacecraft successfully
fired its eight thrusters to get it lined up for the Earth encounter
in the early morning hours of Jan. 15. There will be one more
trajectory adjustment before the capsule is released. Stardust flew
close to the nucleus of the comet two years ago; it launched from Cape
Canaveral in 1999. We'll be covering the return to Earth live online
.... stay tuned.

posted by Chris Kridler at 11:54 AM
.

Relevant Pages

  • Heres something we can all be proud of
    ... New Horizons rockets to Pluto ... -- NASA's New Horizons spacecraft roared into space Thursday afternoon bound for the planet Pluto. ... Thursday's launch comes after two scrubbed attempts earlier this week -- one due to weather, the other because of a power outage. ...
    (alt.politics.bush)
  • LCROSS outbound tracking ephemeris Earth to Moon
    ... The LRO-LCROSS launch is set for a 5:12EDT today. ... The LCROSS Centaur booster trans-lunar orbit projected ... coordinates have been updated into the Horizons system. ... A primitive first-order model of outbound Centaur visibility during ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • New Horizons Update - January 14, 2006
    ... We're in Flight Configuration ... Pre-launch activities on New Horizons are complete and the spacecraft ... New Horizons is now well inside T-100 hours from our planned launch ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Misson zum Pluto
    ... New Horizons Mission News ... Horizons' January 2006 launch window fast approaching, ... Boeing Company, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Jet Propulsion ...
    (de.sci.raumfahrt)
  • New Horizons Update - December 2005
    ... I have been working on seeing the United States fly a mission to Pluto ... flight hardware at the launch pad, we probably would not have had the ... * We conducted our final mission simulations and final spacecraft ...
    (sci.space.news)