LAUREL, Md. — If everything went according to plan, NASA’s New Horizons probe zoomed past Pluto on Tuesday, marking the climax of a first-of-its-kind mission that was launched nine and a half years ago. But we’ll have to wait until more than 13 hours after the encounter to hear for sure that it did the deed.
The piano-sized spacecraft is so busy taking pictures and making observations that it can’t turn its antenna around immediately to flash a message to Earth. And even when it does, it’ll take four and a half hours for the signal saying “I’m OK” to make the 3 billion-mile trip from beyond Pluto to Earth.
The flyby took place at 7:49 a.m. ET Tuesday, with New Horizons coming within about 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) of the dwarf planet's mottled surface. To mark that event, science team members and VIPs gathered here at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where the mission has its operation center.
When the appointed time came, well-wishers applauded, waved American flags and chanted "USA! USA!" To mark the milestone, NASA released a colorized view of the dwarf planet that was sent back to Earth before New Horizons went out of contact on Monday night.
Article by NBC News' Alan Boyle. Read more at NBCNews.com.
