Watch Live: New Horizons Crosses Neptune’s Orbit En Route To Pluto

Another milestone for the Pluto-bound New Horizons mission — it’s crossing the orbit of Neptune today, as it prepares to fly by Pluto next August. In celebration, NASA is holding two live events at headquarters in Washington, D.C. starting at 1 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. UTC) today, and livestreamed above. More details below the jump.

The panel at 1 p.m. EDT will include:

• Jim Green, director, NASA Planetary Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
• Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado

Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. EDT, New Horizons team members will recall what happened when Voyager 2 passed by Neptune 25 years ago, and also talk about where they are working today on the Pluto mission. The members will include:

• Moderator: David Grinspoon, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona
• Fran Bagenal, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Bonnie Buratti, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
• Jeffrey Moore, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
• John Spencer, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado