science

Timeline of New Horizons

Timeline of New Horizons is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Timeline of New Horizons rather than just read about it. In short: Timeline for the New Horizons interplanetary space probe lists the significant events of the launch, transition phases as well as subsequent significant operational mission events; by date and brief description. Preparation phase January 8, 2001: Proposal team meets face-to-face for the first time at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Key takeaways

Timeline of New Horizons belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Timeline of New Horizons to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Timeline of New Horizons from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Timeline for the New Horizons interplanetary space probe lists the significant events of the launch, transition phases as well as subsequent significant operational mission events; by date and brief description.

Preparation phase January 8, 2001: Proposal team meets face-to-face for the first time at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. February 5, 2001: New Horizons name chosen. April 6, 2001: New Horizons proposal submitted to NASA. It was one of five proposals submitted, which were later narrowed to two for Phase A study: POSSE (Pluto and Outer Solar System Explorer) and New Horizons. November 29, 2001: New Horizons proposal selected by NASA. Started Phase B study. March 2002: Budget zeroed by Bush administration, later overridden. June 13, 2005: Spacecraft departed Applied Physics Laboratory for final testing. It undergoes final testing at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). September 24, 2005: Spacecraft shipped to Cape Canaveral. It was moved through Andrews Air Force Base aboard a C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft. December 17, 2005: Spacecraft ready for in rocket positioning. Transported from Hazardous Servicing Facility to Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41. January 11, 2006: Primary launch window opened. The launch was delayed for further testing. January 16, 2006: Rocket moved onto launch pad. Atlas V launcher, serial number AV-010, rolled out onto pad. January 17, 2006: Launch delayed. First day launch attempts scrubbed because of unacceptable weather conditions (high winds). January 18, 2006: Launch delayed again. Second launch attempt scrubbed because of morning power outage at the Applied Physics Laboratory.

Launch phase January 19, 2006: Successful launch at 19:00 UTC after a brief delay due to cloud cover.

Jupiter pre-encounter phase April 7, 2006: The probe passed Mars' orbit 1.5 AU from Earth. June 13, 2006: Flyby of asteroid 132524 APL. The probe passed closest to the asteroid 132524 APL in the Asteroid Belt at about 101,867 km at 04:05 UTC. Pictures were taken. November 28, 2006: First image of Pluto. The image of Pluto was taken from a great distance.

Jupiter encounter phase January 10, 2007: Navigation exercise near Jupiter. Long-distance observations of Jupiter's outer moon Callirrhoe as a navigation exercise. February 28, 2007: Jupiter flyby. Closest approach occurred at 05:43:40 UTC at 2.305 million km, 21.219 km/s.

Pluto pre-encounter phase June 8, 2008: The probe passed Saturn's orbit 9.5 AU from Earth. December 29, 2009: The probe becomes closer to Pluto than to Earth. Pluto was then 32.7 AU from Earth, and the probe was 16.4 AU from Earth. February 25, 2010: New Horizons completed 2.38 billion km (1.48 billion mi), half the total travel distance of 4.76 billion km (2.96 billion mi). March 18, 2011: The probe passes Uranus' orbit. This is the fourth planetary orbit the spacecraft crossed since its start. New Horizons reached Uranus's orbit at 22:00 UTC. December 2, 2011: New Horizons draws closer to Pluto than any other spacecraft has ever been. Previously, Voyager 1 held the record for the closest approach. (~10.58 AU) February 11, 2012: New Horizons reaches the distance of 10 AU from the Pluto system, at around 4:55 UTC. July 1, 2013: New Horizons captures its first image of Charon. Charon is clearly separated from Pluto using the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). October 25, 2013: New Horizons reaches the distance of 5 AU from the Pluto system. July 10, 2014: Photos of Neptune and Triton from about 4 billion km away. July 20, 2014: Photos of Pluto and Charon. Images obtained showing both bodies orbiting each other, distance 2.8 AU. August 25, 2014: The probe passes Neptune's orbit. This was the fifth planetary orbit crossed. December 7, 2014: New Horizons awakes from hibernation. NASA's Deep Sky Network station at Tidbinbilla, Australia received a signal confirming that it successfully awoke from hibernation. January 2015: Observation of Kuiper belt object 2011 KW48. Distant observations from a distance of roughly 75 million km (~0.5 AU) January 15, 2015: Start of Pluto observations. New Horizons is now close enough to Pluto and begins observing the system. March 10–11, 2015: New Horizons reaches a distance of 1 AU from the Pluto system. March 20, 2015: NASA invites the general public to suggest names for surface features that may be discovered on Pluto and Charon. May 15, 2015: Images exceed best Hubble Space Telescope resolution.

Pluto science phase July 14, 2015: Flyby of the Pluto system: Pluto, Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx. • Flyby of Pluto around 11:49:57 UTC at 12,500 km, 13.78 km/s. • Pluto is 32.9 AU from Sun. • Flyby of Charon around 12:03:50 UTC at 28,858 km, 13.87 km/s. July 14, 2015 to October 25, 2016: Transmission of collected data sent back to Earth, and ongoing science discovery based on the observations. The bit rate of the downlink is limited to 1–2 kb/s, so it took until October 25, 2016, to transmit all the data.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Timeline of New Horizons

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Timeline of New Horizons claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Timeline of New Horizons before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Timeline of New Horizons ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Timeline of New Horizons

In research: Timeline of New Horizons appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Timeline of New Horizons in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Timeline of New Horizons is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics New Horizons, Spaceflight timelines, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Timeline of New Horizons outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Timeline of New Horizons in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Timeline of New Horizons means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Timeline of New Horizons out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Timeline of New Horizons in simple terms?

Why does Timeline of New Horizons matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Timeline of New Horizons?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Timeline of New Horizons.