ASA launched the spacecraft despite opposition from protesters who feared the dispersion of the plutonium used to supply the spacecraft's energy, in the event of a malfunction in the launch * early in the morning the spacecraft will cross the lunar orbit
Successful launch of the New Horizons spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida aboard the fast Atlas 5 rocket. It is now making its way towards the planet Pluto where it will reach and pass by in about a decade.
It was the third day in a row that NASA tried to launch the spacecraft. Previous attempts two days and the day before were canceled at the last minute due to strong winds and a power outage at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which operates the spacecraft after leaving Earth's orbit.
As the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon, New Horizons is poised to reveal the secrets of the last unexplored planet. The spacecraft was launched on top of an Atlas 5 rocket that will be boosted by external boosters.
The first 13 months of the mission will include testing the spacecraft's instruments, calibrating the instruments and correcting speeds and flight directions. The spacecraft will also fly by Jupiter in the spring of 2007, and use its gravity to accelerate toward Pluto, saving up to three years of flight time. After passing by Jupiter, the spacecraft will spend eight years of flight in interplanetary space.
To the spacecraft page on the NASA website
21:01 – New Horizons launched at 21:00. Details later on
20:52- Another deadline has passed: 20:50 and now the next deadline is 21:00, hoping for tears in the cloud cover. In any case, the launch window will close at 22:07.
20:30 - The launch scheduled for 20:08 was postponed several times - first to 20:25, then to 20:30 and now to 20:40, when low-altitude clouds began to cover the launch area.
Photo from the launch site, 19/1/2006
19/1/2006 time 18:45 -
The Atlas 5 rocket carrying the New Horizons spacecraft is in launch pad #41 at Cape Canaveral.
When its third phase is full of hydrogen. The countdown is smooth and it is progressing towards 20:08 Israel time. The weather is cooperating, and the spacecraft itself is in good shape. This is how the NASA website is delivered after two days of delays - mainly due to the strong wind that blew in the area of the launch pad.
"There are no known obstacles that could delay the launch," said NASA commentator Bruce Buckingham from the launcher's operations center, located about 6 km from the launch site.
New Horizons is supposed to reveal some of the secrets of the solar system. After launch, it will cross the entire solar system and reach Pluto and its moon Charon in 2015. The seven scientific instruments on board the spacecraft will shed light on the terrain's contours, geology, internal composition and atmospheres.
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