New Horizons takes flight: Probe speeds toward Pluto.

From: The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida) (viaKnight-Ridder/Tribune Business News) | Date: January 20, 2006 | Copyright information

Byline: Robyn Shelton

Jan. 20--CAPE CANAVERAL -- The fastest spacecraft ever created is speeding toward the solar system's most distant planet, where it will study Pluto, its moon and the vast collection of icy objects in the nearby Kuiper Belt. A Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket blasted off Thursday at 2 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, launching New Horizons on the start of its 3 billion-mile journey. When the piano-sized spacecraft broke free of Earth...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research

Bound for Pluto ... and beyond: Fastest spacecraft yet launched could help scientists learn about solar system's origins.
Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) ; ... Americans watched replays of its afternoon liftoff on the nightly news. The Apollo mission took three days to go as far. In another ... Chicago Tribune Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at ...
Postcards from the edge; Astronomy.(The New Horizons mission to Pluto)
The Economist (US) ; A greater understanding of the Kuiper belt will fuel uncertainty over what, exactly, a planet is ONCE upon a time, people thought that the solar system consisted of four small, rocky inner planets, four large, gassy outer planets and an odd little runt called Pluto. Since the early 1990s, though,
LodeStar goes to 'New Horizons'
Albuquerque Journal ; Show takes viewers on 'virtual spaceship' Ever want to take a ride on a spaceship? You will be able to simulate that experience at the "New Horizons" show opening Saturday, March 9, at the LodeStar Astronomy Center. Some sequences of the show's live introduction "will essentially be a virtual
Pluto or Bust.(plans for New Horizons space probe)
U.S. News & World Report ; Pipsqueak planet or colossal comet? Neither? Just plain weird? One thing is certain about tiny, enigmatic Pluto. Since its discovery in 1930, it has cast a spell over both scientists and the general public. People just love that thing, says Alan Stern, a solar system scientist who confesses to deep
Blast-off: Pluto mission opens up new horizons A nine-year odyssey will shed light on the dark planet
The Scotsman ; DEEP in the darkest reaches of our solar system, a small ball of ice and rock makes its way around the distant Sun. The lonely wanderer is Pluto, the furthest known planet from the Sun and the only one not to have been visited by a spacecraft from Earth. But Pluto's unexplored status will change