Posted on Jan 1, 2019
“We are ready for Ultima Thule’s science transmission, science to help us understand the origins of our solar system,” said Alice Bowman, mission operations manager for New Horizons, after the New Horizons spacecraft “phoned home” to confirm it had successfully performed the most distant space flyby in history in the early hours of New Year’s Day after being out of contact for 10 hours.
Confirmation signals were received from the probe at the mission’s control center at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which could have been seriously damaged by even the smallest particles. Thousands of photographs of the dark, icy Ultima Thule were snapped by the New Horizons probe as it barrelled past it on the outer edge of the solar system at 0533 GMT.
Join NASA’s New Horizon team : Watch live on NASA TV
Global song release: Brian May, New Horizons contributing scientist and Queen guitarist, “New Horizons (Ultima Thule Mix)”
12:15-12:45 am EST: Live coverage of countdown to closest approach (12:33 am); real-time flyby simulations
10:15 – 10:45 am EST: Live coverage of New Horizons signal-acquisition activities in the Mission Operations Center, confirming spacecraft status and flyby success
11:30 am– 12:30 pm EST Press briefing: Spacecraft status, latest images and data download schedule. Panelists include Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute; Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; Chris Hersman, New Horizons mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
NASA Awakens New Horizons Spacecraft as It Heads Towards “Ultima Thule” –Outermost Reaches of Our Solar System
“Near-Lightless World of the Outer Solar System” –Astronomers Propose to Retool NASA’s New Horizons Mission as a Space Telescope
The Daily Galaxy via NASA/New Horizons