Controllers have sent Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft a final set of commands ahead of its historic flyby of a distant icy world on Tuesday.
The probe’s pass of the 30km-wide object known as Ultima Thule will set a new record for the farthest ever exploration of a Solar System body – at 6.5 billion km from Earth.
The upload included a two-second timing correction that ensures New Horizons knows precisely when and where to point its cameras as it sweeps alongside its target at a breathtaking 14km/s.
“The spacecraft is healthy and we’re excited!” said mission operations manager Alice Bowman when she briefed reporters at the control centre embedded in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU-APL) in Maryland.
We’ve just confirmed that the Knowledge Update is onboard New Horizons, meaning Ultima Observations are adjusted to occur at the best possible times based on the latest trajectory info.@NasaNewHorizons @jhuapl https://t.co/PMi92sTiD0— Alice Bowman (@plutoport) December 31, 2018
