New Horizons Takes a Little Trip.....

NASA has managed to Launch the New Horizons probe to Pluto. The launch was successful and without incident as far as can be told at this point. As I type, the Centaur second stage is maneuvering to inject the probe into a solar orbit that will graze the gravity well of Jupiter for a velocity boost to send it on to Pluto in about 10 years.

Well Done Lockheed-Martin and Johns-Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory! Let us hope that in 10 years, everything is still working as well.

UPDATE: The Star 46 third stage has injected the probe into Jupiter transfer orbit.

FINAL UPDATE: We have spacecraft separation from the third stage, Sir Issiac Newton and Al Einstein are now driving the spacecraft. Good luck and see you at Jupiter Flyby next year!