Live Thread: Rescheduled Launch of New Horizons Mission to Pluto

NASA ^ | 1/19/2006 | n/a

[Pyro7480]

NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto is proceeding toward launch on Jan. 19. The launch opportunity runs from 1:08 p.m. - 3:07 p.m. EST. A power outage this morning at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, where the spacecraft will be operated in flight, had led mission managers to postpone today's launch attempt at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Power has since been restored to the Laboratory campus; the New Horizons Mission Operations Center has both primary and backup power and is ready to support tomorrow's launch.

[Pyro7480]

Virtual Launch Control Center - New Horizons

12:43 a.m. - We are now at T-15 minutes and counting.

12:38 p.m. - At T-20 minutes and counting, flight control final preparations are now completed.

12:36 p.m. - The fueling of the Atlas V is an automated process. The launch team controls the process, however, an automated computer program actually performs the tanking operations.

12:34 p.m. - Tanking is now complete with all three stages of the Atlas V achieving flight level.

12:33 p.m. - We are at T-25 minutes and counting down to a launch at 1:08 p.m. this afternoon.

[Pyro7480]

Ping!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Little wind, slightly overcast here today. Nice day for a launch, lousy day to get a photo of it.

[r9etb]

Good man, posting the thread....

[Constitution Day]

BTTT

[Pyro7480]

Now going for 10-minute hold. Clock hold at T minus 4 minutes

[Carolinamom]

PING!

[markman46]

ready and waiting

[Pyro7480]

You can watch the launch coverage of NASA TV online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/launch/vlcc.html. Click on the NASA TV link on the upper right hand side of the page.

[fishtank]

Watching on the 'net.

Great mission, BTW.

....had to explain to my kids why it takes nine years to get all the way out to Pluto....no warp drives yet

[markman46]

streaming it now from the KSC web site

[aligncare]

Every time there's a launch to the extreme reaches of our solar system, it brings up for me the question of how the universe came to be. Darn it - what is beyond the edge of the universe? Is there a finite boundary? Do the scientists at NASA think about the possible answers to these questions?

[finnman69]

no go due to cloud cover

[dandelion]

Bumpity!

[finnman69]

now 1:18

[Carolinamom]

Quote from and by Two Thirds Vote Aye:

"The spacecraft will be the fastest ever to flyby the Moon, which happens in less than 10 hours after launch! It took an Apollo mission something like a week to get to the Moon.

"It will get to Pluto in about 10 years. It would take 14 years, but it will use Jupiter as a slingshot."

Truly amazing!

[FreedomFarmer]

[markman46]

hold to 1:25pm EST looks like cloud cover

[finnman69]

now 1:25

[Pyro7480]

New launch time of 1825Z (1:25 EST).