[meteorite-list] NASA's New Horizons Plans July 7 Return to Normal Science Operations

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-plans-july-7-return-to-normal-science-operations

NASA's New Horizons Plans July 7 Return to Normal Science Operations
July 5, 2015

NASA's New Horizons mission is returning to normal science operations 
after a July 4 anomaly and remains on track for its July 14 flyby of Pluto.

The investigation into the anomaly that caused New Horizons to enter "safe 
mode" on July 4 has concluded that no hardware or software fault occurred 
on the spacecraft. The underlying cause of the incident was a hard-to-detect 
timing flaw in the spacecraft command sequence that occurred during an 
operation to prepare for the close flyby. No similar operations are planned 
for the remainder of the Pluto encounter.

"I'm pleased that our mission team quickly identified the problem 
and assured the health of the spacecraft," said Jim Green, NASA's 
Director of Planetary Science. "Now - with Pluto in our sights - 
we're on the verge of returning to normal operations and going for the 
gold."  

Preparations are ongoing to resume the originally planned science operations 
on July 7 and to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned. The 
mission science team and principal investigator have concluded that the 
science observations lost during the anomaly recovery do not affect any 
primary objectives of the mission, with a minimal effect on lesser objectives. 
"In terms of science, it won't change an A-plus even into an A," 
said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research 
Institute, Boulder.

Adding to the challenge of recovery is the spacecraft's extreme distance 
from Earth. New Horizons is almost 3 billion miles away, where radio signals, 
even traveling at light speed, need 4.5 hours to reach home. Two-way communication 
between the spacecraft and its operators requires a nine-hour round trip. 
 
Status updates will be issued as new information is available.