Jan 19 2006
From The Space Library
NASA launched the US$700 million New Horizons spacecraft aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket, on a 3-billion mile (4.83-kilometer), 9-year journey to Pluto, at 2:00 p.m. (EST) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft left Earth’s orbit at a speed of 36,000 miles per hour (57,936 kilometers per hour). After the spacecraft’s planned February 2007 flyby of Jupiter, to receive a gravity-assisted velocity boost, NASA projected that it would reach a top speed of 47,000 miles per hour (75,639 kilometers per hour), thereby reducing the flight’s duration by three to five years. NASA expected that the New Horizons spacecraft would have its closest approach to Pluto and its moons in July 2015. Powered by 24 pounds (10.9 kilograms) of plutonium, New Horizons carried seven scientific instruments. Three of these were cameras, which would capture visible-light, infrared, and ultraviolet images of the surfaces of Pluto and its moon Charon. Also on board were three spectrometers, to study the composition and temperatures of Pluto’s thin atmosphere and surface features. After flying past Pluto, the spacecraft would penetrate deeper into the Kuiper Belt, an outer zone of the solar system comprising thousands of icy, rocky objects, including comets and small planets, such as Pluto.
Warren E. Leary, “NASA Launches Spacecraft on the First Mission to Pluto,” New York Times, 20 January 2006; Mike Schneider for Associated Press, “Unmanned Spacecraft Hurtles Toward Pluto,” 20 January 2006; Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 627, 1 February 2006, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx627.html (accessed 14 September 2009).
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Galileo Industries S.A. of Brussels, a consortium of European space-hardware manufacturers, signed a €950 million (US$1.15 billion) contract for the construction of four Galileo navigation-system satellites, planned for launch in 2008. ESA had created Galileo as a civilian-controlled operation, designed to increase Europe’s strategic independence from the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System (GPS) and to provide a more precise navigational tool. The first experimental Galileo satellite, Giove-A, which ESA had launched on 28 December 2005, had transmitted the first Galileo navigational signals on 12 January 2006.
Agence France-Presse, “ESA, Galileo Industries Set Deal for First Four Galileo Satellites,” 20 January 2006; European Space Agency (ESA), “Contract for In-Orbit Validation of Galileo System,” press release 4-2006, 13 January 2006, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_4_2006_p_EN.html (accessed 5 October 2009); ESA, “First Galileo Signals Transmitted by GIOVE-A,” press release 3-2006, 12 January 2006, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ Pr_3_2006_ p_EN.html (accessed 5 October 2009); Peter B. de Selding, “Giove-A Permits Early Registration of Galileo Frequencies,” Space.com, 20 January 2006.
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