Boing Boing Staging

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft phones home from Pluto, and all is “nominal”

Xeni Jardin


“We are in lock with telemetry on the spacecraft,” operations manager Alice Bowman said at the New Horizons Mission Operations Center.


Cheers and clapping at the Mission Operations Center (MOC), as the New Horizons spacecraft signal was received.

NASA TV is broadcasting confirmation that a signal has been received from the New Horizons spacecraft, which just flew as close to Pluto as it’s going to get on a decades-long trip. This is the first ever flyby of Pluto in human history.

“We have a healthy spacecraft, we recorded data on the Pluto system, and we’re outbound from Pluto,” Operations Manager Alice Bowman said over the NASA TV feed.

A loud group cheer and jumps and high-fives in the air inside the Mission Operations Center (MOC). A standing ovation from the crowd at the #Plutoflyby event in a nearby auditorium at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. And there was furious banging into Twitter from those of us observing around the world online at NASA TV.

This is a historic space success for America.

Later, at a media briefing, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said, “With this mission, we have visited every single planet in the solar system.”

Shortly thereafter, he was greeted by children who were born the day the mission was launched. They are now 9 years old.

“This is not about us, any of us on this control team,” added Bolden. “It’s about the next generation.”

“Let the journey of discovery continue.”

A media briefing followed soon after with the New Horizons operations team.

“Our spacecraft did exactly what it was supposed to do,” said New Horizons operations manager Alice Bowman, “And we were there to capture it.”

Imagery is coming next—- higher-resolution, higher information, like the world has never seen from Pluto. In the media briefing, it was described as a “waterfall of data,” with the first transmission expected around 5am Eastern Time tomorrow, Wednesday July 14.


Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930.

Exit mobile version