Monday, December 8, 2014

New Horizons awakens from final hibernation

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has woken up from hibernation for the last time. Image Credit: NASA
From a distance of 2.9 billion miles across the vastness of the solar system, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft confirmed Dec. 6 that it successfully awakened from its 19th and final hibernation. At 9:28 p.m. EST (0230 GMT), after waiting nearly four and a half hours for the signal to travel to Earth, mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHUAPL) in Laurel, MD announced they received confirmation that New Horizons had successfully come out of hibernation for the final time.
The Planetary Society celebrated New Horizons’ emergence from hibernation with a live YouTube broadcast on Saturday night Dec. 6 at 9 PM EDT with host Matt Kaplan, mission Co-Investigator Bonnie Buratti, and Deep Space Network New Horizons liaison Felicia Sanders. Announcement of the signal confirming the wakeup was made toward the end of the program...Continue reading, video...

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