![]() ![]() ![]() The spacecraft flew by the solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, for a gravity assist maneuver on Feb. A month later, on April 7, 2006, New Horizons passed the orbit of Mars.Ī fortuitous chance to test some of the spacecraft’s instruments – especially Ralph (the visible and infrared imager and spectrometer) – occurred June 13, 2006, when New Horizons passed by a tiny asteroid named 132524 APL at a range of about 63,300 miles (101,867 kilometers). The spacecraft was now set on a trajectory to the outer reaches of the solar system.Ĭontrollers implemented course corrections on Jan. The design of the spacecraft was based on a lineage traced back to the CONTOUR and TIMED spacecraft, both also built by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.īesides its suite of scientific instruments, New Horizons carries a cylindrical radioisotope thermoelectric generator (a spare from the Cassini mission) that provided about 250 watts of power at launch (decaying to 200 watts by the time of the Pluto encounter).Īfter reaching initial Earth orbit at about 105 × 130 miles (167 × 213 kilometers), the Centaur upper stage fired (for a second time) for nine minutes to boost the payload to an elliptical orbit that stretched to the asteroid belt.Ī second firing of the Star 48B solid rocket accelerated the spacecraft to a velocity of about 36,400 miles per hour (58,536 kilometers per hour), the highest launch velocity attained by a human-made object relative to Earth. By the time it reached the Pluto system, the spacecraft had traveled farther away and for a longer time period (more than nine years) than any previous deep space spacecraft ever launched. New Horizons was the first spacecraft to encounter Pluto, a relic from the formation of the solar system. (The program also includes Juno and OSIRIS-REx.) It was the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program, a medium-class, competitively selected, and principal investigator-led series of missions. ![]() New Horizons is a NASA mission to study the dwarf planet Pluto, its moons, and other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system that extends from about 30 AU, near the orbit of Neptune, to about 50 AU from the Sun. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD) First spacecraft to explore a second Kuiper Belt Object up close – Arrokoth (2014 MU69)Ī 3D model of NASA's New Horizons, a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.First spacecraft to explore Pluto and its Moons up close.Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI).Solar Wind and Plasma Spectrometer (SWAP).Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).Ralph-Visible and Infrared Imager/Spectrometer.NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) In early 2019, New Horizons flew past its second major science target – Arrokoth (2014 MU69), the most distant object ever explored up close. Tickets are not required during these times.NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close, flying by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. Option two is to enter the park BEFORE 6am or AFTER 4pm during the summer months. For 2022 that would be any date after September 11 and before the GTSR closes for the season (usually mid-October). And if you're reading all of this and thinking "This is too complicated" and all of this sounds like a big headache to you, then we’ve got some good news… There are a couple of ways too avoid the vehicle reservation process! Option one is to visit the park AFTER the final date of required ticket entry. Visitors with service reservations (lodging, camping, commercial tours, etc.) along the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor do not need a vehicle reservation. At the time of writing this the NPS hasn’t made it clear how far in advance tickets will be made available, so be sure to check the National Park Service Site for updated information on the reservation process. And while the cost isn’t a problem, obtaining a ticket can be. The entry tickets are free but do require a non-refundable “Reservation Fee” of $2. Part of that solution is requiring visitors that are wanting to enter the park and drive the GTSR during the summer months (between 6am & 4pm) to obtain an entry ticket (valid for 3 days). With more than 3 million visitors a year, the NPS has been forced to find ways to manage the surging crowds that Glacier has seen in the last decade. ![]()
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