New Horizons Nears July 14 Flyby Of Pluto
NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI via Getty Images
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NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft is on it's very first mission to the Pluto System, and it is a fascinating look into space for us, the average Americans! The Pluto 'Fly By' was at 7:49 a.m. EDT today, and NASA has released a video to explain things to us non rocket scientists. From NASA: 'The 1,050-pound piano sized probe, which was launched January 19, 2006 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is traveling 30,800 mph as it approaches' Pluto. After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface -- making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth.'

It's no coincidence that our first images of Pluto are coming on the 50th anniversary of the very first time we ever saw Mars in space. Even physicist Stephen Hawking posted a video message to Facebook this morning congratulating the New Horizons team on the  flyby of Pluto. Thank you, NASA, and we are looking forward to more awesome images from Pluto today!

 

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