New Horizons adjusts its trajectory with maneuvers

Published: Feb 01, 2006
Source: www.spaceflightnow.com



NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has successfully carried out its first post-launch maneuvers, conducting two small thruster firings that slightly adjusted its path toward the outer solar system and the first close-up study of distant planet Pluto.

Carried out Jan. 28 and 30 by mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the maneuvers refined the spacecraft's trajectory toward a gravity assist-flyby of Jupiter in February 2007. The gravity boost from Jupiter will put New Horizons on course for a close flyby of Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015.continue..