2019-06-01_All_About_Space

THE ULTIMA

INSPECTION

NASA’s New Horizons flew past the Kuiper Belt Object,

Ultima Thule, at the beginning of the New Year. But what

has been learned from the highly anticipated flyby?

Reported by Lee Cavendish

Before NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made

its New Years approach to Ultima Thule, the

very excited New Horizons team held a press

briefing in order to educate on and emphasise the

importance of this flyby.

From left to right we see Alan Stern, the

principal investigator, of the Southwest Research

Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, US. Next

along the line is Helene Winters, the project

manager, of John Hopkins Applied Physics

Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, US. Then

there’s the navigation team lead, Fred Pelletier of

KinetX, Inc. in Tempe, Arizona, US. Sitting on the

right is SwRI’s John Spencer, the mission’s deputy

project scientist.

The New Horizons team prepares for approach

31 December 2018 // 7:00pm UTC (2:00pm EST)

© NASA

Ultima Thule