Timeline of New Horizons

Timeline for the New Horizons interplanetary space probe lists the significant events of the launch, transition phases as well as subsequent significant operational mission events; by date and brief description.

An artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with the Plutonian system

Preparation phase

edit
  • January 8, 2001: Proposal team meets face-to-face for the first time at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.[1]
  • February 5, 2001: New Horizons name chosen.[1][2]
  • April 6, 2001: New Horizons proposal submitted to NASA. It was one of five proposals submitted, which were later narrowed to two for Phase A study: POSSE (Pluto and Outer Solar System Explorer) and New Horizons.[1]
  • November 29, 2001: New Horizons proposal selected by NASA. Started Phase B study.[3]
  • March 2002: Budget zeroed by Bush administration, later overridden.[4][5]
  • June 13, 2005: Spacecraft departed Applied Physics Laboratory for final testing. It undergoes final testing at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).[6]
  • September 24, 2005: Spacecraft shipped to Cape Canaveral. It was moved through Andrews Air Force Base aboard a C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft.[7]
  • December 17, 2005: Spacecraft ready for in rocket positioning. Transported from Hazardous Servicing Facility to Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41.[8]
  • January 11, 2006: Primary launch window opened. The launch was delayed for further testing.[9]
  • January 16, 2006: Rocket moved onto launch pad. Atlas V launcher, serial number AV-010, rolled out onto pad.[10]
  • January 17, 2006: Launch delayed. First day launch attempts scrubbed because of unacceptable weather conditions (high winds).[11][12]
  • January 18, 2006: Launch delayed again. Second launch attempt scrubbed because of morning power outage at the Applied Physics Laboratory.[13]

Launch phase

edit
  • January 19, 2006: Successful launch at 19:00 UTC after a brief delay due to cloud cover.[14][15]

Jupiter pre-encounter phase

edit
  • April 7, 2006: The probe passed Mars' orbit 1.5 AU from Earth.[16][17]
  • June 13, 2006: Flyby of asteroid 132524 APL. The probe passed closest to the asteroid 132524 APL in the Asteroid Belt at about 101,867 km at 04:05 UTC. Pictures were taken.[18]
  • November 28, 2006: First image of Pluto. The image of Pluto was taken from a great distance.[19]

Jupiter encounter phase

edit
  • January 10, 2007: Navigation exercise near Jupiter. Long-distance observations of Jupiter's outer moon Callirrhoe as a navigation exercise.[20]
  • February 28, 2007: Jupiter flyby. Closest approach occurred at 05:43:40 UTC at 2.305 million km, 21.219 km/s.[21]

Pluto pre-encounter phase

edit
  • June 8, 2008: The probe passed Saturn's orbit 9.5 AU from Earth.[21][22]
  • December 29, 2009: The probe becomes closer to Pluto than to Earth. Pluto was then 32.7 AU from Earth, and the probe was 16.4 AU from Earth.[23][24][25]
  • February 25, 2010: New Horizons completed 2.38 billion km (1.48 billion mi), half the total travel distance of 4.76 billion km (2.96 billion mi).[26]
  • March 18, 2011: The probe passes Uranus' orbit. This is the fourth planetary orbit the spacecraft crossed since its start. New Horizons reached Uranus's orbit at 22:00 UTC.[27][28]
  • December 2, 2011: New Horizons draws closer to Pluto than any other spacecraft has ever been. Previously, Voyager 1 held the record for the closest approach. (~10.58 AU)[29]
  • February 11, 2012: New Horizons reaches the distance of 10 AU from the Pluto system, at around 4:55 UTC.[30]
  • July 1, 2013: New Horizons captures its first image of Charon. Charon is clearly separated from Pluto using the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).[31][32]
  • October 25, 2013: New Horizons reaches the distance of 5 AU from the Pluto system.[30][33]
  • July 10, 2014: Photos of Neptune and Triton from about 4 billion km away.[34]
  • July 20, 2014: Photos of Pluto and Charon. Images obtained showing both bodies orbiting each other, distance 2.8 AU.[35]
  • August 25, 2014: The probe passes Neptune's orbit. This was the fifth planetary orbit crossed.[36]
  • December 7, 2014: New Horizons awakes from hibernation. NASA's Deep Sky Network station at Tidbinbilla, Australia received a signal confirming that it successfully awoke from hibernation.[37][38][39]
  • January 2015: Observation of Kuiper belt object 2011 KW48. Distant observations from a distance of roughly 75 million km (~0.5 AU)[40]
  • January 15, 2015: Start of Pluto observations. New Horizons is now close enough to Pluto and begins observing the system.[41][42]
  • March 10–11, 2015: New Horizons reaches a distance of 1 AU from the Pluto system.[43]
  • March 20, 2015: NASA invites the general public to suggest names for surface features that may be discovered on Pluto and Charon.[44]
  • May 15, 2015: Images exceed best Hubble Space Telescope resolution.

Pluto science phase

edit
  • July 14, 2015: Flyby of the Pluto system: Pluto, Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx.
     • Flyby of Pluto around 11:49:57 UTC at 12,500 km, 13.78 km/s.
     • Pluto is 32.9 AU from Sun.
     • Flyby of Charon around 12:03:50 UTC at 28,858 km, 13.87 km/s.[45]
  • July 14, 2015 to October 25, 2016: Transmission of collected data sent back to Earth, and ongoing science discovery based on the observations. The bit rate of the downlink is limited to 1–2 kb/s,[46] so it took until October 25, 2016, to transmit all the data.[47][48][49][50]

Arrokoth pre-encounter phase

edit
  • October 22 – November 4, 2015: Trajectory correction maneuver. A course adjustment for the January 2019 flyby of Arrokoth was performed in a series of four thruster firings of 22 minutes each.[51][52]
  • November 2, 2015: Observation of KBO 15810 Arawn. Long-range observations from a distance of 274 million kilometers (1.83 AU), the closest ever for any Trans-Neptunian Object other than Pluto and 486958 Arrokoth. More images were taken on April 7–8, 2016, at a range of 179 million kilometers (1.20 AU) as well.[53]
  • July 13–14, 2016: Observation of KBO 50000 Quaoar. Long-range observations from a distance of 2.1 billion kilometers (14 AU) gives mission scientists a different perspective in order to study the light-scattering properties of Quaoar's surface.[54]
  • February 1, 2017: Trajectory correction maneuver. A small course adjustment towards the January 2019 flyby of Arrokoth was performed with a 44-second thruster firing.[55][51]
  • March 12, 2017: Arrokoth's orbit is deemed to be sufficiently well-resolved that it is formally catalogued as minor planet #486,958 and announced as such via Minor Planet Circular 103886.[56] From now until its naming in November 2019, the object's official designation is to be (486958) 2014 MU69.
  • 2017–2020: Observations of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). The probe will have opportunities to perform observations of 10 to 20 KBOs visible from the spacecraft's trajectory after the Pluto system flyby. Heliosphere data collection is expected to begin.[57][58][59]
  • December 9, 2017: Trajectory correction maneuver. This delays the arrival at Arrokoth by a few hours, optimizing coverage by ground-based radio telescopes.[60][61]
  • December 23, 2017 – June 4, 2018: Final hibernation period before the (KBO) Arrokoth encounter.[62][60]
  • August 2018 – March 2019: Distant observations of at least a dozen distant KBOs. Recovered by Subaru Telescope in 2014–2017, enabling New Horizons observations[63]
  • August 13, 2018: Switch from spin stabilization to 3-axis stabilization.[60]
  • August 16, 2018 – December 24, 2018: Approach phase. Optical navigation, search for hazardous material around Arrokoth[60]
  • August 16, 2018: First detection of Kuiper belt object Arrokoth[64]
  • October 4, 2018 – December 2, 2018: Opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers. Maneuvers scheduled for October 4 and November 20, with backups on October 23 and December 2, respectively[60]

Arrokoth science phase and beyond

edit
  • January 1, 2019: Flyby of Arrokoth, then nicknamed Ultima Thule. The flyby occurred at 05:33 UTC, and is the outermost close encounter of any Solar System object.[65]
  • January 9, 2019: Switch from 3-axis stabilization to spin stabilization. This ended the Arrokoth flyby, marking the beginning of the downlink phase.[60]
  • 2019–2020: Downlink of data from the Arrokoth flyby. Predicted to take approximately 20 months.[60]
  • November 12, 2019: The object previously known by the provisional designation of 2014 MU69 (later numbered 486958 and nicknamed Ultima Thule) was officially named Arrokoth.[66]
  • April 22–23, 2020: Stellar distance measurements to both Proxima Centauri, and Wolf 359 using stereoscopic images from New Horizons and Earth-based telescopes for usable parallax observation.[67]
  • April 15, 2021: New Horizons reaches 50 AU from the Sun, becoming the fifth spacecraft to reach the milestone.[68]
  • April 30, 2021: End of the first extended mission.[60]
  • May 26, 2022: "NASA’s New Horizons mission’s second extended mission proposal was approved." This two-year mission "will make distant observations of Uranus and Neptune[,] map the very faint 'cosmic background' in visible and ultraviolet (UV) light [and use] its instruments to understand the motions of charged particles as they interact with the solar wind, and to understand our heliosphere's large-scale structure."[69]
  • 2020s: The probe may be able to fly by a third KBO. The probe approached Arrokoth along its rotational axis, which simplified trajectory correction maneuvers, saving fuel that could be used to target another KBO.[70][71] After the flyby, the spacecraft was left with 11 kg (24 lb) of fuel.[72]
  • Mid to late 2030s: Expected end of the mission, based on RTG decay. Heliosphere data collection expected to be intermittent if instrument power sharing is required.[73][71]

Post-mission phase

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Stern, Alan (2008). "The New Horizons Pluto Kuiper belt Mission: An Overview with Historical Context" (PDF). Space Science Reviews. 140 (1–4): 3–21. arXiv:0709.4417. Bibcode:2008SSRv..140....3S. doi:10.1007/s11214-007-9295-y. S2CID 119197398. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  2. ^ Stern, S. Alan (May 9, 2005). "New Horizons indeed". The Space Review.
  3. ^ Savage, D. (November 29, 2001). "NASA Selects Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission For Phase B Study". NASA. Archived from the original on March 8, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  4. ^ "Cuts threaten mission to Pluto". 4 March 2002. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  5. ^ "The Planetary Society". Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  6. ^ Buckley, Michael; Brown, Dwayne; Diller, George (September 26, 2005). "APL-Built Pluto Spacecraft Begins Launch Preparations" (Press release). Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Archived from the original on January 15, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  7. ^ "NASA'S Pluto Space Probe Begins Launch Preparations". SpaceDaily. September 27, 2005. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  8. ^ Granath, Bob (June 30, 2015). "NASA Met Unprecedented Challenges Sending Spacecraft to Pluto". NASA. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  9. ^ Leonard, David (September 1, 2005). "New Horizons Pluto Probe Readied For Launch". Space.com.
  10. ^ Cooper, Ben (January 2006). "New Horizons Rollout". Launch Photography. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  11. ^ Leary, Warren E. (January 17, 2006). "Winds Delay Launching for NASA Mission to Pluto". The New York Times.
  12. ^ "Launch of NASA's Pluto Probe Delayed for 24 Hours". Space.com. January 17, 2006. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  13. ^ Malik, Tariq (January 18, 2006). "Power Outage Delays Launch of NASA's Pluto Probe". Space.com. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  14. ^ Alexander, Amir (January 19, 2006). "New Horizons Launched on its Way to Pluto". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012.
  15. ^ Harwood, William (January 19, 2006). "New Horizons launches on voyage to Pluto and beyond". Spaceflight Now. Archived from the original on November 30, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  16. ^ Malik, T. (April 7, 2006). "Pluto-Bound Probe Passes Mars' Orbit". Space.com. Archived from the original on November 27, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  17. ^ "mars 7 april 2006 – Wolfram|Alpha". www.wolframalpha.com.
  18. ^ Olkin, Catherine B.; Reuter; Lunsford; Binzel; et al. (2006). "The New Horizons Distant Flyby of Asteroid 2002 JF56". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 38: 597. Bibcode:2006DPS....38.5922O.
  19. ^ K. Beisser (November 28, 2006). "New Horizons, Not Quite to Jupiter, Makes First Pluto Sighting". JHU/APL. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
  20. ^ "New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Timeline". The Planetary Society. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  21. ^ a b "Mission Timeline". Johns Hopkins APL. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  22. ^ "Distance between Saturn and Earth on June 8, 2008". Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  23. ^ Villard, R. (December 29, 2009). "New Horizons Crosses Halfway Point to Pluto". Discovery Communications, LLC. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  24. ^ "Distance between Pluto and Earth on December 29, 2009". Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  25. ^ "New Horizon properties on December 29, 2009". Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  26. ^ "Spacecraft Hits Midpoint on Flight to Pluto". Space.com. February 26, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  27. ^ "Space Spin – New Horizons ventures beyond Saturn's orbit". June 9, 2008. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  28. ^ SPACE.com Staff (March 18, 2011). "NASA Pluto Probe Passes Orbit of Uranus". SPACE.com. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  29. ^ "Twitter.com – NewHorizons2015".
  30. ^ a b "New Horizons on Approach: 22 AU Down, Just 10 to Go". JHU/APL. February 10, 2012. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  31. ^ Plait, Phil (July 11, 2013). "New Horizons Gets a First Glimpse of Pluto's Moon Charon". Slate.
  32. ^ "Charon Revealed! New Horizons Camera Spots Pluto's Largest Moon". New Horizons; Headlines. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. July 10, 2013. Archived from the original on December 8, 2013.
  33. ^ "On the Path to Pluto, 5 AU and Closing". New Horizons; Headlines. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. October 25, 2013. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014.
  34. ^ "NASA's New Horizons probe crosses orbit of Neptune 25 years after Voyager 2 | collectSPACE".
  35. ^ "New Horizons Spies Charon Orbiting Pluto". Johns Hopkins APL. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014.
  36. ^ "Passing the Planets". Johns Hopkins APL. March 18, 2011. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
  37. ^ "NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) – Twitter".
  38. ^ "It's Alive! NASA's New Horizons Pluto Probe 'Wakes Up' for Work". NBC News. December 6, 2014.
  39. ^ Nally, Jonathan. "Ready for a Close Encounter". Australian Sky & Telescope (83): 14. ISSN 1832-0457.
  40. ^ NewHorizons2015. "About the Jan 21o5 KBO, It's VNH0004". Retrieved August 21, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Buie, Marc W. "Orbit Fit and Astrometric record for VNH0004". User pages. Southwest Research Institute Planetary Science Directorate. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  41. ^ Brown, Dwayne; Buckley, Michael; Stothoff, Maria (January 15, 2015). "January 15, 2015 Release 15-011 – NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Begins First Stages of Pluto Encounter". NASA. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  42. ^ "New Frontier News". December 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  43. ^ "New Horizons". jhuapl.edu. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  44. ^ "pluto-update". ourpluto.org. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  45. ^ "New Horizons Pluto Flyby Press Kit" (PDF). July 2, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  46. ^ Rienzi, Greg (July 17, 2015). "How exactly does New Horizons send all that data back from Pluto?". The Hub. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  47. ^ Chang, Kenneth (October 28, 2016). "No More Data From Pluto". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  48. ^ Szondy, David (September 7, 2015). "New Horizons begins massive 'treasure trove' data downlink". Gizmag. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  49. ^ Lakdawalla, Emily (September 10, 2015). "Pretty Pictures: Downlink of the Full New Horizons Data Set Has Begun". The Planetary Society. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  50. ^ Talbert, Tricia (September 10, 2015). "New Pluto Images from NASA's New Horizons: It's Complicated". NASA. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  51. ^ a b Stockton, Nick (November 4, 2015). "How NASA Is Steering New Horizons Toward a Tiny Space Rock in the Kuiper Belt". Wired. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  52. ^ Gebhardt, Chris (January 3, 2017). "New Horizons prepares for New Year's Day 2019 Kuiper Belt Object encounter". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  53. ^ "A Distant Close-up: New Horizons' Camera Captures a Wandering Kuiper Belt Object". New Horizons. NASA/JHUAPL. December 4, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  54. ^ Talbert, Tricia (August 31, 2016). "New Horizons Spies a Kuiper Belt Companion". NASA. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  55. ^ Talbert, Tricia (February 1, 2017). "New Horizons Refines Course for Next Flyby". NASA. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  56. ^ "Minor Planet Circular 103886". Minor Planet Center. March 12, 2017.
  57. ^ Lakdawalla, Emily (September 1, 2015). "New Horizons extended mission target selected". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  58. ^ Stern, Alan (August 2015). "OPAG: We Did It!" (PDF). Presentation to the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Universities Space Research Association. pp. 32, 35. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  59. ^ "Why Go to Pluto?". Johns Hopkins APL. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  60. ^ a b c d e f g h Lakdawalla, Emily (January 24, 2018). "New Horizons prepares for encounter with 2014 MU69". Planetary Society. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  61. ^ "New Horizons Corrects Its Course in the Kuiper Belt". December 9, 2017.
  62. ^ Kornfeld, Laurel (December 24, 2017). "New Horizons put in final hibernation before 2019 KBO flyby". Spaceflight Insider. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  63. ^ Porter, Simon; et al. (December 11, 2017). Constraints on the Shapes and Rotational States of the Distant New Horizons Kuiper Belt Targets. AGU Fall Meeting. December 11–15, 2017. New Orleans, Louisiana. 1:22:55–1:36:00. P13F-07. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  64. ^ "Ultima in View: NASA's New Horizons Makes First Detection of Kuiper Belt Flyby Target". NASA. August 28, 2018. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  65. ^ Clark, Stephen (January 6, 2018). "Plot thickens as New Horizons moves within year of next flyby". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  66. ^ "New Horizons Kuiper Belt Flyby Object Officially Named 'Arrokoth'". pluto.jhuapl.edu. Applied Physics Laboratory. November 12, 2019. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  67. ^ Nature Davide Castelvecchi (11 June 2020) Pluto probe offers eye-popping view of neighbouring star Proxima Centauri doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01699-6
  68. ^ "NASA's New Horizons probe reaches rare distance, looks out to farthest Voyager | collectSPACE". collectSPACE.com.
  69. ^ Talbert, Tricia (2022-04-25). "Update: NASA Extends Exploration for 8 Planetary Science Missions". NASA. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
  70. ^ Clark, Stephen (September 21, 2017). "Scientists firm up flyby plan for New Horizons's next destination". Spaceflight Now.
  71. ^ a b Wall, Mike (December 21, 2018). "New Horizons May Make Yet Another Flyby After Ultima Thule". space.com.
  72. ^ New Horizons: Nasa waits for signal from Ultima Thule probe. Jonathan Amos, BBC News. January 1, 2019.
  73. ^ NASA (July 20, 2011). "New Horizons". NASA Solar System Exploration. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on October 26, 2003. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  74. ^ "New Horizons Salutes Voyager". Johns Hopkins APL. August 17, 2006. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 3, 2009.