Pluto has successfully phoned home.
At exactly, 8:52:37 P.M. EDT
@newhorizonsmission
At 9:30 EDT, NASA held a briefing.
This is just the beginning of images and data that we will see over the next few days, months even.
Tomorrow at 3 P.M. EDT, NASA will hold another briefing discussing more of what the spacecraft sent back.
Alan Stern, Chief Investigator, said to the team three words, “WE DID IT!”
He then told them to take a bow.
Mr. Stern referenced past expeditions such as the Mariner, the Voyager, and the Pioneer which had laid down building blocks for the New Horizons historic trip across the solar system.
He also marveled at the ingenuity of human effort. “It did what we told it to.”
Missions Operations Manager, Alice Bowman, was asked to say a few words and was met with chants from the audience.
“ALICE! ALICE! ALICE!”
She was noticeably moved and commented on how she hadn’t had much sleep (aside from a half hour nap earlier today).
“. . . in laymen’s terms, the spacecraft is happy. . . ”
–Alice Bowman
Space exploration was a childhood dream for her and this is a dream realized.
She spoke of some trepidation of not receiving a signal back from New Horizons.
She likened it to a child, “Sometimes they don’t do what you expect them to do. . .”
Not so in this case. New Horizons is on track.
There was a lot of talk of inspiring future generations and even some further explorations of Mars.
During the question and answer session, some children stood up. Known as the “Pluto Kids”, they were all born on the day that New Horizons was launched.
Another child stood and asked, “What is the extended missions goal?”
Which was met with uproarious laughter.