At New Horizons mission control, systems operators have woken up the grand-piano shaped spaceprobe, for routine tests to make sure all systems are working well. The spacecraft has been in hibernation, with most electronics in sleep mode, since December 16, 2008. In the months since then, it has coasted around 320 million km (200 million miles) nearer the dwarf planet Pluto and its three moons, Charon, Nix and Hydra
Pluto is a hugely distant target - since launch New Horizons has travelled some 1.92 billion km (1.19 billion miles) from Earth, a distance which radio signals from Earth cover in 106 minutes to reach the spacecraft. As it stands, the spaceprobe is looking good; by late August all checks should have been completed and the craft will be put to sleep again for the next leg of its long journey.
Pluto itself was the outpost planet of the Solar System when New Horizons left Earth, on January 19, 2006. Since then, it has been demoted to ‘dwarf planet’ status - but that name-change does not affect the mission: it’s still the same mystery world that is ripe for exploration in a flyby that will last just a few hours. However, Pluto is so far away that the flyby is not due until July 14, 2015!
You can find out the current position of New Horizons here.
The flyby picture above is based on cgi art by Thierry Lombry
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