NASA Suffers New Horizons Disconnect As Pluto Nears

The New Horizons probe set to arrive at Pluto in just ten days time gave NASA an unpleasant July 4th surprise, losing contact with Earth for more than an hour. The glitch, which began at 1:54pm EDT, saw radio communications between the mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the distant spacecraft cut for unknown reasons. While the link was reconnected at 3:15pm EDT, it leaves NASA scientists scrambling to get New Horizons back onto its original course.

Although the reasons behind the unexpected disconnect are still unclear at this stage, it's nonetheless been a successful test for the autopilot system. That automatically switched from the main computer when it spotted an issue was being experienced, over to the backup computer, which was instructed to get back in touch with NASA.

The longer-term impact of switching into "safe mode" is still being decided, however.

Since there's a huge distance between Earth and New Horizons – nearly three billion miles, in fact – and thus a significant, nine hour delay in instructions reaching the probe from NASA and telemetry being fired back, the expectation is that it could take a few days before the extent of the recovery plan is finalized.

NASA brought together a New Horizons Anomaly Review Board (ARB), 45 minutes after the probe resumed contact, which will be responsible for figuring out how to bring it back to its original flight plan. "Full recovery is expected to take from one to several days," NASA points out, during which the spacecraft "will be temporarily unable to collect science data."

The stakes for New Horizons are high, not least because it's been a long trek to Pluto. That journey began all the way back in January 2006, in fact, and is expected to see the probe hurtle past the planet on July 14, with just 7,800 miles or less between them.

During that time, high resolution photos and more will be captured, as scientists take the opportunity to learn more about the distant planet in the Kuiper Belt.

However, it won't enter into orbit around Pluto, instead going on to investigate other objects in the Belt.

NASA is yet to confirm whether the July 14 date still stands.

SOURCE NASA