A Very exciting day today….
I was delighted to be asked by NASA to be the wake up call for The New Horizons’ Spacecraft.
It comes out of hibernation at 3 p.m. EST today. About 90 minutes later New Horizons will transmit word to Earth that it’s in “active” mode; those signals, even traveling at light speed, will need four hours and 25 minutes to reach home.
Confirmation should reach the mission operations team at APL around 9:30 p.m. EST. At the time New Horizons will be more than 2.9 billion miles from Earth, and just 162 million miles – less than twice the distance between Earth and the sun – from Pluto.
You really will be able to hear me in space today!
If you want to know more about the mission here are some links:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2014/141113.asp
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html
