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we are live at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland
where the wait is indeed over after a voyage of three billion miles and nine
and a half years the New Horizons spacecraft is just about 20 minutes away
from flying by Pluto and completing the initial reconnaissance of the solar
system unlike Buckley from APL Communications and public affairs joined
again by my colleague Dwayne brown of NASA's Office of Communications and
Dwayne with New Horizons just moments away from flying by Pluto we are indeed
on the cusp of history Mike let me do this when they pinch myself it's not a
dream we're here it's game time NASA's new Horizons mission to Pluto is
one of the great explorations of our time scientists won't be rewriting
textbooks with this historic mission they'll be writing them from scratch
it's one of many NASA missions unlocking the secrets of the solar system and
beyond the lightweight New Horizons spacecraft is zipping through the Pluto
system at more than 30,000 miles per hour with the most powerful suite of
science instruments ever sent on the first reconnaissance mission since the
day we discovered 85 years ago Pluto has been Harbhajan of the mysteries on the
fall planetary frontier with the discovery in 1930 Pluto became a preview
of the icy rocky objects and what would become known as the Kuiper belt and as
history has already told us it was just the first glimpse of other incredible
scientific finds and not only can you get the latest images science findings
and mission updates right here on NASA television today and over the next
several weeks months join the conversation via Twitter Facebook and
other social media platforms talking about the July 14th
flyby today send in your questions at hashtag Pluto flyby and online mission
information images all our vailable @ww NSA
go slash New Horizons Mike Wow look all I can say you can feel it in
here I mean you know if there's an electric atmosphere the Applied Physics
lab this morning with a lot going on outside our doors its mission team
members family friends and others getting ready to mark and celebrate this
incredible achievement now one part of campus they're members of the science
team getting ready to deliver some of the best views of Pluto we've ever seen
the Mission Operations Center well not a whole lot of activity there because the
spacecraft is on its own running through the close approach operations that were
programmed into his computers last week and in fact let's check in on New
Horizons now this is the eyes on the solar system simulation of New Horizons
called eyes on Pluto it's based on actual commands and this is what the
spacecraft is doing at this very moment nearly three billion miles from home and
you can follow along with this on the web at eyes nasa.gov now speaking of the
excitement Dwayne is going to head out to flyby countdown central and while he
does that here's a message from someone who isn't as far as Pluto but definitely
out of this world hi I'm astronaut scott Kelly
aboard the International Space Station as you know NASA is all about
exploration and discovery whether it is here on the ISS close to Earth or now
billions of miles away at Pluto and the far edge of the solar system known as
the Kuiper belt until now Pluto has remained a mystery the last unexplored
major body in our solar system but that's all about to change the new
Horizons spacecraft is making history after a nine-year journey as an
encounters Pluto and its system of moons I'm excited to see the first close-up
images of this dwarf planet and to see NASA complete the initial reconnaissance
of the distant reaches of our solar system so from the International Space
Station I'm sending my heartfelt best wishes and congratulations to the New
Horizons team just like me all of us at NASA can proudly say my other vehicle is
on its way to Pluto
now Dwane Brown is outside let's check in with him and countdown central Dwane
lots of eyes on the clock out there Mike can you hear me
I got your doing gotcha I apologize for being late but the crowd it's so thick
in here it is unbelievable if I close my eyes I would think I was in New York in
Times Square countdown and what you're hearing now is speech by the mission
team project manager from the pod physics lab he's talking to the crowd
like the experience and everything everyone is so excited very we are
moments away from the countdown and I'd have to tell you I've never seen so much
excitement I've been doing this for 30 years
it is absolutely amazing we're going to try to get some interviews here before
you in a little while might but I'm toss it back to you and see if we can get
some special guests okay while we're doing that we're gonna check back in on
the ice on Pluto simulation because you can check out the activity online at
eyes nasa.gov to point out what you're looking at here this is a simulation of
what the spacecraft is actually doing live and you can see the instruments
moving going through their observations color coded up in the top corner taking
the scan a pluton if I'm not mistaken it looks like it's going over the heart
right the second amazing observation so we'll go back and see what the way and
if he's got his interviews okay well one is still running those up with
us is Alice Bowman the Mission Operations Manager for New Horizons and
Alice I guess my first question for you be what are you doing here right
shouldn't somebody be flying the spacecraft but New Horizons is on its
own program to be doing all these maneuvers out near Pluto so that what's
how does that work I'm sure we loaded up all the commands
to the spacecraft about a week ago and it's just ticking down its checklist
those commands are firing off at the time that the scientists want them to
fire off and so this is closest approach this is when you get the best science so
it's we don't want it to point to everything talk to us we want it to take
science so that's what it's doing so many of the operations team members are
here at coffee when um when was the last time we heard from it we heard from it
last night the we started the track about 10 o 8
p.m. Eastern and we had signals from the spacecraft until 11 17 p.m. the you
swing it kid can't take data and communicate with it at the same time how
come well we built that spacecraft for a long duration mission and when you do
that you want to have a few moving parts as possible so we had that fixed antenna
onboard the spacecraft and so in order to communicate with earth you have to
point that in a antenna back to earth so that it can beam that signal likewise
when you take science observations you have to take that spacecraft and you
have to point those instruments to where those objects are that they want to
observe okay and like you mentioned before you know less time on Pluto means
more time talking to earth is less time on Pluto and the busiest time right now
for this encounter happening you definitely don't wanna be looking at
Earth no definitely not talking on let stick us to the timeline then of what
happens today and into tonight we've seen the observations that are happening
on board the rest of the day well I'll step back a teeny bit and say
that we had a lot of activity in the mock last night we didn't have single
signals from the spacecraft but we were actually uploading uplinking signals to
the Rex instrument on board and of course we have to start those up links
about four and a half hours before that experiment is taking place on the
spacecraft so we had seven of the DSN antennas Deep Space Network antennas
trained on New Horizons and sending an uplink signal
we started that about 3:00 a.m. this morning and we continued that until
about 6:30 and then we will take a little break and a couple hours we'll do
that again but in the operation center you'll you'll see us start to congregate
there a little bit before perhaps a 7:00 p.m. and we will hopefully I'm sure get
signal at 8:53 p.m. local and we'll have a very short burst of 15 minutes where
we'll get information from the spacecraft and we'll be able to tell you
if it's healthy and so that's our plan for today I mean it but a little bit of
rest in between I would think to make that happen
yeah all right Alice well thank you for joining us and good luck tonight thank
you you know I got to say too I mean the the
social media build up on this has just been incredible and I mean go to NASA
social adjacent towns of the philistine I mean Jason I'm having a hard time not
looking at my iPad here and checking out Twitter and the buzz nothing else is
going on tell us what's happening on social media with New Horizons it's all
over the place indeed indeed yes you know it's an exciting time today is a
great day and we're going to be doing live coverage all over social media on
NASA's accounts out there right now Pluto flyby is trending on Twitter and
on Facebook and right now we've also got a sneak peak of the image that is going
to be released at 8 a.m. this morning up on NASA's Instagram account so lots of
events though that our social media followers can join us and follow along
get involved with today they're scheduled all afternoon and evening so
we'll have members of the new horizons team ready to answer your questions
starting today at noon Eastern Time in a reddit AMA on the reddit site at 2:00
p.m. Eastern Time today we'll have a Facebook a question and answer session
on NASA's Facebook page that's facebook.com slash NASA and then today
at 6 p.m. Eastern Time we'll be doing a tweet chat on at NASA new horizons will
be taking your questions using the hashtag ask NASA during both of our
press briefings this morning coming up at 8 a.m. and also this evening where we
get the healthy face Kraft signal back we'll be taking your questions and
having them answered by our subject matter experts up here using the hashtag
ask NASA so there's lots that you can get involved with
so really it's an exciting day we hope that you're going to keep following
along we'll be posting all of the news about the Pluto flyby today on at NASA
and at NASA new horizons on Twitter on NASA's Facebook page Google+ page and
Instagram accounts out there as well as the New Horizons Facebook page so follow
along join us and get involved yeah Jason I'm curious too I mean because
there's so much coming out of the mission I mean there's pictures there's
conversation what are you seeing more of online is that people are talking more
about the images that are coming down is it just the general excitement of what's
happening with New Horizons what do you seeing I think people are definitely
excited this is one of our you know most incredible looks that we've had of Pluto
it's the first spacecraft to get there and take a really in-depth look so
people are kind of standing by with you know bated breath waiting for the latest
and greatest images and all the information that the missions going to
be returning and so we're going to be sharing that all along on social media
with everyone okay Jason sounds good thanks so remember keep following the
activity the twitter handle at nasa New Horizons of course WWN assay gioves
slash new Horizons and let's go back out to Dwane Brown
countdown central during what's going on I hope you can hear me because the
tension the night mint is an affection people from all over the world of all
ages so excited they are socialized on something even crying waiting for this
moment you know I've been I've never seen so much excitement in science and
so much you know the anticipation of it you're hearing from the Tom bombs or
telecom moms were talking to the audience and of course to the daughter
from his son and that an elder of fly Tom all who discovered Pluto in 1930
again pounds us for all the extra noise here but you know here in countdown
central everybody just having a good time it's a
celebration and I have to tell you I'm glad to be here I love sharing a set
with you Mike but it's really fun to be out here back to you because we're
getting close to making history thanks Wayne yeah I mean I guess he got the
prime spot out there I'm here on the desk but we're going to check back in
with the spacecraft what's going on with eyes on the solar
system and New Horizons and see where it is in his activity hundreds of
observations at this point in closed approach as we get closer to Pluto
four minutes away one more than four and a half minutes away flying by Pluto
looking at the observations here target right between the Pluto that they call
the Pluto berry Center this is the spot of gravity between Pluto and its largest
moon Charon follow this on line eyes nasa.gov
you know this truly is historic Wellman the fastest spacecraft ever to leave
Earth about to complete the farthest voyage to reach its primary target right
now making the first exploration Pluto and its family of Moon opening the door
to an entirely new region that we've only just begun to understand we can
check back into on mission operations and see again with the activity or lack
of activity will point out again this is going to be the place to watch later on
tonight as we anticipate the signal coming back from New Horizons again you
see here there's no activity the spacecraft is on its own going through
all of its activity programmed into its computers tonight we expect New Horizons
check back in around nine o'clock Eastern Time check back in with a signal
that would indicate that it's healthy and that it did everything it was
programmed and supposed to do we're going to check back in with Duane
outside of cap down central Duane back to you Mike we are about three minutes
underway right now the head of planetary science at NASA Jim Green is addressing
the audience I got to tell you if you may not I'm a hold of some here everyone
has American flag and when we have that countdown you're going to see something
really really special again the excitement is sexist I hope
that you get one of these flags because I'm really lucky to have this and I'm
going to take it back to you but we're getting close really fun out here along
with us and enjoy and indeed okay in fact I'm going to go back over to to
Jason fountain with NASA social Jason checking the the trending up there and
what's happening we've got indeed there's a lot of love
for the sneak peek on Instagram right now of the image that's out there we're
also going to get ready here at 8:00 a.m. and release the image everywhere
and put it out and talk all about the science behind it so leading up here
those of these next couple of minutes here with the flyby people are
definitely talking about it we're still trending with Pluto flyby on Twitter and
Facebook and getting involved in the conversation
join us do you continue to follow along we're live on NASA TV which you can
follow at wwas gov keep looking for news at WWF gov / New Horizons and following
along on at NASA New Horizons on Twitter hashtag Pluto flyby I think we're going
to be ready to join the countdown soon at it countdown central with Dwane Brown
Dwane activity out there how's it look at it well my age it's getting close
here Alan Stern the principal investigator of the mission is called
everybody to the stage we've had speeches we've had remarks we we've had
the son and daughter of the demand who discovered Pluto in 1930 and we're
getting there with a little over a minute out here it countdown central I
just again the excitement and the whole world is watching it all of the media
social media it's just amazing museums everybody everybody is a part of history
history in science and exploration taking place right here in Laurel
Maryland at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory ladies and gentlemen
we're getting close very quickly it's it's it's almost there
again what you're going to see you're going to see thousands probably more
than a thousand people are crowded in this room they're going to have American
flags they're gathering they're hugging some it's about America we're getting
ready to make history let's take it and see history in the making
9
come back here and be on your way
hey liliane if you get John grunts over here real quick John Groce around tryna
see the atmosphere in the room - those people they were waving flags get
started new Horizons spacecraft passes a close approach mark at Pluto after a 3
billion mile journey nine and a half years launched in January 2006 flew by
Jupiter 2007 record speed across the solar system crossing planetary orbits
faster than any other spacecraft had reached them speeds of 30 thousand miles
an hour almost hard to think of hard to imagine so after nine and a half years
now made it first on Pluto's doorstep now past Pluto gathering amazing amounts
of information opening the door to an entirely new region of the solar system
that until recently we knew nothing about this is exploration that its
finest check it out look how busy New Horizons still scanning away doesn't
realize it just made history doing it right now
get back to the room and see to the folks on stage that's the director of
the Applied Physics Laboratory Ralph Cemil mission officials saw Allen Stern
principal investigator the tombaugh's
okay let's go back out to Dwane Brown money Mike America's space program has
written a new chapter in science and exploration history has been made and
standing next to me is one of those key individuals that has made that history
happen this is dr. John Grunsfeld and if you don't know him oh good shot him like
never 105 like time I like to say they showed up for an astronaut although
known as the Hubble repair man but he is the director of NASA's science Mission
Directorate in New Horizons is one of almost 100 missions in a science mission
director dr. Grunsfeld how does it feel history in science here I like this it's
amazing and truly a hallmark in human history the only
not yet what is it tape I have a mission go hearing in miles take Pantanal to
nine years lots of moving pieces what's the secret to success like this what
people often think that the success Commission's like this you know that
engineers the hardware the mission of citizen Realty is the teamwork because
the network naps I felt that what are you bringing teams of scientists
engineers technicians from industry academia from government together to do
these incredible feats there you go like we've just done one over I do one last
question yes we made history today but there's something the stores not over
there's something that has to happen if evening what describe that that helmet
is coming up this evening of course we are celebrating the moment
by which are you gonna do variety in spacecraft I have an approach we imagine
Ludo taking all the incredible data so we're not talking to the space where
it's doing its job tonight we're going to get the signal step things that it
made it through the system and it's ready to start sending us the treasure
trove of data congratulations out there own show thank
you oh my goodness I'm just having all the special guests here hey this is dr.
Alan Stern the principle investigator the scientist the main scientists on
this mission Lewton history been made dr. stern it's
got to feel good it feels good you know so many people put so much work into
this around the country engineers and scientists technicians business people
people like yourself in communications it's a moment of celebration because
we've just done the anchor leg we have completed the initial reconnaissance of
the solar system and endeavour started under President Kennedy more than 50
years ago continuing to today under President Obama it's really historic
what the United States has done and the new horizons team is really proud to
have been able to run that anchor leg and make this accomplishment
well dr. stern before you go and we have to transition I know we've got another
event coming up dr. grenfell talked about you know the story is not over
we've got something that really is going to be special this evening give me your
thoughts on what's going to transpire later on today
well the spacecraft is currently doing its job taking measurements in the Pluto
system at a very rapid pace and we are going to have it check back in with us
about 9:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight and that's when we'll find out if it
completed its job successful dr. ngratulations and I'll see you this
evening Thank You Dwayne so Mike head down and countdown central where you
heard dr. Grunsfeld you heard dr. stern and others America's space program has
written a new chapter in space and exploration back to you that thanks to
Wayne the atmosphere no Pluto is no longer the unexplored world and as one
countdown ends another begins as you heard we wait for new horizons the phone
home tonight and let us know that all went well so stay tuned to NASA TV for
our next media briefing and we'll get an update and our look at some of the last
images that New Horizons took of Pluto before going into the flyby so I'm Mike
Buckley for Dwane Brown and new horizons team thanks for watching
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