On January 19, 2006,New Horizons was launched fromCape Canaveral Air Force Station directly into an Earth-and-solarescape trajectory. After a brief encounter with asteroid132524 APL,New Horizons proceeded toJupiter, making its closest approach on February 28, 2007. The Jupiter flyby provided agravity assist that increasedNew Horizons' speed; the flyby also enabled a general test ofNew Horizons' scientific capabilities, returning data aboutthe planet's atmosphere,moons, andmagnetosphere.
Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts. On December 6, 2014,New Horizons was brought back online for the Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began. On January 15, 2015, theNew Horizons spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.
On July 14, 2015, at 11:49UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. Having completed its flyby of Pluto,New Horizons has maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object2014 MU69, expected to take place on January 1, 2019, when it is 43.4AU from the Sun.
Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was a German rocket scientist and one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. Von Braun is well known as the leader of what has been called the “rocket team” which developed theV-2 ballistic missile for theNazis duringWorld War II. As part of a military operation calledProject Paperclip, he and his rocket team were scooped up from defeated Germany and sent to America where they were installed atFort Bliss,Texas. For fifteen years afterWorld War II, von Braun worked with theU.S. Army in the development of ballistic missiles. At Fort Bliss, they worked on rockets for the U.S. Army, launching them atWhite Sands Proving Ground,New Mexico. In 1950 von Braun’s team moved to theRedstone Arsenal near Huntsville,Alabama, where they built the Army’sJupiter ballistic missile. In 1960, his rocket development center transferred from the Army to the newly establishedNASA and received a mandate to build the giantSaturn rockets. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA’sMarshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of theSaturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to theMoon.
A timed exposure ofSpace ShuttleColumbia on launch pad 39A at theKennedy Space Center in preparation for her maiden flight,STS-1. To the left of the Shuttle are the fixed and the rotating service structures.
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