New Video Will Get You Excited for New Horizons' Pluto Encounter (as if you already aren't...)

By Nancy Atkinson - June 16, 2015 at 3:20 PM UTC | Missions
new-horizons.png

Are you ready for New Horizons' flyby of Pluto? The science and engineering team reports they are ready for action, with the spacecraft on track and all systems functioning, with closest approach on July 14, 2015.

To get the rest of us ready, the National Space Society has put together a stirring video of the New Horizons mission. It was directed and produced by Erik Wernquist, who created another stirring video last year,

Wanderers

, which looks to the future of solar system exploration. For this new video, New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern served as advisor.

"As both an NSS member and the Principal Investigator of New Horizons, I'm excited about this beautiful film - and very appreciative of the efforts of NSS and its sponsors to create this. It really is stirring; I hope you'll think so too," said Stern.

You can read the latest update from the New Horizons team

here

, which includes information about the third and final far encounter science phase, called Approach Phase 3, which runs until seven days before Pluto close approach. Additionally, the team is on the lookout for possible hazards for the spacecraft, e.i., new moons, rings or other space debris that might present hazards to the fast-moving spacecraft when it flies through the Pluto system. They've been analyzing the latest images from the spacecraft and so far it looks all clear.

"Every day we break a new distance record to Pluto, and every day our data get better," said Stern. "Nothing like this kind of frontier, outer solar system exploration has happened since Voyager 2 was at Neptune way back in 1989. It's exciting--come and watch as New Horizons turns points of light into a newly explored planetary system and its moons!"

Additionally, @NewHorizons2015 just

tweeted out

a great infographic about the encounter:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com