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Post by Shadow on Sept 4, 2005 10:19:30 GMT -5
USA TodayBy Leonard David, Space.com BOULDER, Colorado — Distance wise, Pluto is way out there. But the time to hurl a probe toward that outlying world is close at hand. Engineers have completed a set of key shake and bake tests in readying NASA's New Horizons spacecraft – critical steps to show that the craft is on track for launch in January of next year. New Horizons is designed to perform the initial reconnaissance of Pluto and its moon, Charon, as well as the Kuiper Belt of icy bodies. They are all baffling objects at the "edge" of our solar system. In the past, New Horizons has been billed as the first mission to the last planet. However, given recent revelations, such as a new, bigger than Pluto object—temporarily named 2003 UB313—some three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto—it is obvious that the entourage of planets we're all so familiar with…well, it's no longer your father's solar system. That has become as clear as astronomical observations can be lots of uncharted territory and more hedge than edge.
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