Pluto Mission is back on track for its historic Pluto flyby set for July 14, as confirmed by the celebration of the science team behind the $728 million mission on NASA's Twitter account.
The start of the Pluto flyby sequence means that New Horizons, the probe set to make the close encounter with Pluto, will plow ahead on its programmed course, coming within 8,000 miles or 12,500 kilometers of the dwarf planet's surface at 7:49 a.m. EDT July 14, even after experiencing glitches like the one that occurred on July 14, NBC News reports.
Losing contact with the probe last weekend only showed the team that the probe is ready for far worse situations. New Horizon and the team's quick response to the anomaly proved that they can push through with the Pluto mission.
"We're delighted with the New Horizons response to the anomaly," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science. "Now we're eager to get back to the science and prepare for the payoff that's yet to come," according to NASA's official press release.
Before the anomaly struck, the probe was able to take the latest high-resolution images of the surface of the planet. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) snapped three pictures of Pluto, including one that shows again the four mysteriously even dark spots on the surface, Forbes reports.
