New Horizons Arrives At Ksc Options

[Redstone]

NASA Press Release
APL press release
Space.com Article

Coming up...
October: communications checks
November: hydrazine loading and Atlas V countdown rehearsal
December: integration with Atlas V
January: LAUNCH!

No pictures on the KSC webcams yet.

But still pictures here.


Is that the flight RTG attached to the spacecraft? Or just a dummy?

[Redstone]

As we get closer to launch, I thought post this chart of New Horizon's Launch window. It's taken from the NH presentation to the October meeting of OPAG.



The prime window is only 17 days long. After that, NH's arrival at Pluto gets later fast. Amazingly, the later part of the window sents NH on a Pluto-direct trajectory. No gravity assists. Even considering the longer flight time, and the fact that the mission involves a lot of rocket for a little spacecraft, a direct throw out of the solar system is pretty impressive. Hopefully, it won't be needed!

If the window is missed completely, then NH will launch in 2007, and we'll have to wait to 2019-2021 to see Pluto.

Fingers crossed!

[Alan Stern]

The plot shown is an old version of the launch window depiction. It should
not have been shown at OPAG, but little things like this happen.

Back in 2004, I realized that 28 Jan was very close to being able to make
2015, energetically. Our mission design team was thus able to make
28 Jan an Aug 2015 arrival. Just one month later than all the other 2015
arrivals, which are in July. We could even have moved some of the other 2016
days to 2015, but at the expense of our radio science, which requires a near
opposition geometry to minimize IPM scintillation; to preserve the
radio science, we stuck with 2016 July.

The bottom line is that about a year ago we moved the arrival for a 28 Jan '06
launch from July 2016 to Aug 2015, giving us 18 days total for 2015 arrivals.

-Alan