The inside story of New Horizons’ ‘Apollo 13’ moment on its way to Pluto
Flight Controllers Sarah Bucier, left, Dan Kelly and Chris Regan monitor data being sent back by the New Horizons spacecraft as it nears Pluto, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., on July 8. (J.M. Eddins, Jr./for The Washington Post)
By Joel Achenbach-July 10
The people in the Mission Operations control center — “the MOC” — had been tracking NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft for nine and a half years as it journeyed the breadth of the solar system. It was just 10 days away from the dwarf planet Pluto when, at 1:55 p.m. on July 4, it vanished.
By Joel Achenbach-July 10The people in the Mission Operations control center — “the MOC” — had been tracking NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft for nine and a half years as it journeyed the breadth of the solar system. It was just 10 days away from the dwarf planet Pluto when, at 1:55 p.m. on July 4, it vanished.
For the first time, we’re about to get a close look at Pluto and its cold, outer region of the solar system. The Post's Joel Achenbach explains NASA's New Horizons mission. (Tom LeGro/The Washington Post)
The Inside Story of New Horizons’ ‘Apollo 13’ Moment on Its Way to Pluto by Thavam Ratna
The Inside Story of New Horizons’ ‘Apollo 13’ Moment on Its Way to Pluto by Thavam Ratna
