For 21 nerve-racking hours, NASA flight controllers and space exploration enthusiasts around the world waited for the New Horizons spacecraft to break its silence. About 9 p.m. on July 14, New Horizons phoned home to say that it survived its flight past Pluto, marking a major milestone in the history of solar system exploration.
"With the successful flyby of Pluto we are celebrating the capstone event in a golden age of planetary exploration," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "While this historic event is still unfolding - with the most exciting Pluto science still ahead of us - a new era of solar system exploration is just beginning. NASA missions will unravel the mysteries of Mars, Jupiter, Europa and worlds around other suns in the coming years."
New Horizons has already sent a few teaser images back to Earth, but there is much more to come if all continues to go according to plan. The spacecraft was out of touch with the mission team for those 21 suspenseful hours because it was busy using all of those precious moments while it was nearest to Pluto to collect data. It collected so much data that experts estimate that it is going to take 16 months to transmit all of it to Earth.
Now that New Horizons has passed by Pluto, it will continue hurtling through the Kuiper Belt where thousands of mysterious icy objects await. These objects could provide insights on how our solar system formed, according to NASA.
But today, the New Horizons team and countless others around the world are celebrating.
"I know today we've inspired a whole new generation of explorers with this great success, and we look forward to the discoveries yet to come," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "This is a historic win for science and for exploration. We've truly, once again, raised the bar of human potential."
