. 24/7 Space News .
Jupiter Encounter Begins For New Horizons Spacecraft On Route To Pluto

The New Horizons Jupiter Encounter press kit is scheduled for release mid-day on January 18, the day of our pre-encounter press conference.
by Staff Writers
Laurel MD (SPX) Jan 11, 2007
The New Horizons Jupiter encounter is under way! The spacecraft began collecting data on the Jovian system this week, starting with black-and-white images of the giant planet and an infrared look at the icy moon Callisto on Jan. 8. These were the first of about 700 observations of Jupiter and its four largest moons planned from now until June.

They include detailed scans of Jupiter's turbulent, stormy atmosphere and dynamic magnetic field, a peek into its faint ring system, maps of the composition and topography of the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and a look at Io's volcanic activity. Also in the flight plan: the first-ever trip down the long "tail" of Jupiter's magnetic field, which extends tens of millions of miles beyond the planet.

The New Horizons mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., works closely with science operations team, based at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo., and mission scientists to plan, test and eventually send the observation commands to the spacecraft, which runs the sequences from memory in its onboard computers.

Data are stored on the spacecraft's recorders and sent back to Earth through NASA's Deep Space Network antennas. The newest images will be available on the New Horizons Web site next week.

"Our ground team has worked very hard to get to this point," says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of SwRI. "Now the curtain is rising on the next stage of Jupiter-system exploration. It's exciting!"

Closest approach to Jupiter comes Feb. 28, when the spacecraft zooms within 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). New Horizons uses Jupiter's gravity to speed toward its ultimate destination, Pluto.

Related Links
Pluto at APL
Lost Among A Million Outer Planets



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


New Horizons In 2007
Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 04, 2007
What a memorable year for New Horizons! After a last few ground preparations and flight approvals, we launched at 1900 GMT on 19 January. I will never forget the sight of the giant, 210-foot tall "A train" leaving Florida for the Kuiper Belt, and how filled with pride I was for everyone who worked to see this milestone come to pass.







  • European workshop on space exploration strategy
  • Microsoft Vista Launch Promoted With Space Ride Prize
  • NASA Extends Ares I Development Contract
  • Instant Noodle Inventor Dies At 96

  • Panel Will Study Mars Global Surveyor Events
  • New Analysis of Viking Mission Results Indicates Presence of Life on Mars
  • It Is No Mirage
  • CU-Boulder Proposal Selected As Finalist For Mission To Probe Past Climate Of Mars

  • India Tests Technology For Space Vehicles
  • PSLV Successfully Launches Four Satellites
  • Arianespace To Launch ProtoStar I
  • India To Launch Latest Space Rocket

  • Japanese Scientists Discover Huge Undersea Lava Plateau
  • Northrop Grumman To Develop System Requirements For USAF Alternate Infrared Sat System
  • Digitalglobe Announces Ball Aerospace Is Building Worldview 2 Satellite
  • Raytheon Delivers VIIRS Sensor Engineering Development Unit

  • Jupiter Encounter Begins For New Horizons Spacecraft On Route To Pluto
  • New Horizons in 2007
  • Pluto Sighted For First Time By New Horizons From Four Billion Kilometers Away
  • Making Old Horizons New

  • Dust Around Nearby Star Like Powder Snow
  • Death Of A Star Sheds Universal Light
  • First 3D Map Of The Universe's Dark Matter Scaffolding
  • X-ray Evidence Supports Possible New Class Of Supernova

  • British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely
  • Britain Considers Plans For Solo Moon Missions
  • Metric Moon
  • Moon shots: China, Japan in '07; U.S., India in '08

  • BAE Systems Demonstrates Passive Geo-location Technology
  • Mobile Navigation More Accessible Than Ever
  • Boeing Passes GPS III Milestone and Receives Follow-on Funding
  • Russian Defense Ministry Lifts GLONASS Restrictions

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement