NASA New Horizon Mission 2015, the year of the Dwarf Planet

This “movie” of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken in July 2014 clearly shows that the barycenter, the centre of mass of the two bodies, resides outside (between) both bodies. 

The 12 images that make up the movie were taken by the spacecraft’s best telescopic camera, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), at distances ranging from about 267 million to 262 million miles (429 million to 422 million kilometers). 

Charon is orbiting approximately 11,200 miles (about 18,000 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. 

Credit: NASA /Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory /Southwest Research Institute

The New Horizons mission became the first mission of NASA's New Frontiers program, beginning development in 2001.

The probe was launched on January 19, 2006, atop an Atlas V 551 (5 solid rocket boosters plus a third stage).

Utilising more compact and lightweight electronics than its predecessors to the outer planets, Pioneer 10 & 11, and Voyager 1 & 2, the combination of reduced weight, a powerful launch vehicle, plus a gravity assist from Jupiter has lead to a nine year journey.

On December 6, 2014, New Horizons was taken out of hibernation for the last time and now remains powered on until the Pluto encounter.

The arrival date of New Horizon is July 14, 2015. A telescope called the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) has permitted the commencement of observations while still over 240 million kilometers (150 million miles) from Pluto.

The first stellar-like images were taken while still in the Asteroid belt in 2006.

Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get new Kurs-NA ISS docking system in 2015

Russian spacecraft performing flights to the International Space Station will be equipped with a new automated approach and docking system starting next year, the manufacturer of the system said Monday, RIA Novosti reports.

"All Kurs systems will be replaced with Kurs-NA equipment in 2015," the Izhevskiy Radiozavod company said in a statement.

The unmanned Progress M-21M resupply vehicle currently docked with the station successfully tested the new system last week.

The cargo ship undocked from the ISS in an automatic mode using the new Kurs-NA system on Wednesday and re-docked Friday.

The Kurs-NA system boasts advanced electronics, a fully-digitized control system and increased docking precision compared to its predecessor.

The improved system will be used on all upgraded Progress and manned Soyuz spacecraft in the future.

The Kurs-NA was first tested in space in July 2012, but the Progress cargo ship in that test failed to re-dock with the station due to an apparent failure in the system's sensors.

During a second test in November, the Progress M-21M resupply craft was forced to dock in a manual mode due to another failure of the Kurs-NA system.

Boeing To Offer Rides Into Orbit By 2015

The same company that makes many of the airliners carrying passengers around the world will now be carrying passengers to low earth orbit. Boeing announced today they have signed a memorandum of agreement with Space Adventures to develop and market the private space rides.

Space Adventures is the company that has put together several orbital trips for private individuals to the International Space Station. The companies have not announced what the cost of a ride to orbit will be or when the first rides will occur. Trips could include visits to the ISS or to other orbital stations to be built in the future. Boeing is already partnering with Bigelow Aerospace on a commercial space station program to be built later in the decade.

The passenger flights will take place on commercial trips aboard the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft to low earth orbit. In addition to individuals with enough money, rides will also be offered to companies, non-governmental organizations and federal agencies besides NASA. The seven passenger spacecraft is expected to be operational by 2015.

The announcement from Boeing is the first from one of the existing, large space contractor companies to offer transportation to space for private individuals. Space Adventures has previously contracted with the Russian space agency to offer rides to orbit. Those rides started at $20 million, but costs have climbed to as high as $40 million for a single passenger.

The agreement with Boeing is likely to create some competition for the Russians and may help keep costs down for cargo and passengers.

Upstart space launch company SpaceX has also talked about delivering passengers to low earth orbit. In the near future the company is focused on delivering cargo payloads to the ISS, but SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is expected to carry passengers to orbit as well.

For suborbital passenger flights, Virgin Galactic released a new video today with information about the company’s space flights aboard VSS Enterprise (aka SpaceShipTwo). Several hundred people have already signed up for the flights which will include several minutes of weightlessness and views of earth from more than 65 miles above the surface.