New Horizons Wake-Up Call

The New Horizons spacecraft on it’s way to Pluto was scheduled to get a wake-up call on November 9 and then spend 10 days running system tests and diagnostics.  The trip to Pluto is so long (in spite of the craft’s record speed of about 23 km/sec) that it spends much of its time in hibernation mode.  It’s schedule to arrive at Pluton in 2015.  Today it crosses the 15 AU mark (that’s 15 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is).

According to a Twitter post, the craft is now away and operating.  Hopefully, we’ll get an update soon on PlutoToday.com. Unfortunately, for all us eager to hear news of Pluto, well, we’ll just have to wait.  Space is, alas, mostly space with not much to see.