New Horizons beyond the Horizon!

With my daughter's birthday and Girl Scouts I hadn't the chance to post on the New Horizons Launch on Thursday. My four year old Megan and I watched the launch. She loved counting 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blast-OFF!

National Space Society's press release here.

"The New Horizons craft will look back in time to the birth of our solar system. It will answer fundamental questions about where we came from and what lies at the far reaches of our solar system."

And from The Planetary Society President Louis Freedman's message:

Planetary Society members, acting hand-in-glove
with the scientific community, saved this mission
to Pluto and the Kuiper belt when bureaucratic
behemoths in Washington tried to stamp it out,
claiming it was of little scientific value and
the public didn't care whether or not humanity
ever got a glimpse of these icy worlds on the
edge of our solar system.

Without the "Pluto Underground" of planetary scientists in 1989 andThe Planetary Society the New Horizon probe would not have gotten off the ground. The probe was canceled twice by the Bush Administration. In 2004 the Planetary Society urged members to write to Congress to fully fund the New Horizons probe. Congress threatened to cut $55 million from the project and extend the mission time frame.

In an impressive example of the power of the people, the U.S. Senate's Appropriations Committee approved full funding of New Horizons in the NASA budget for fiscal year 2004.

This is a great beginning to a wonderful scientific mission. I remember the Pioneer and Voyager probe missions and the scientific information it collected. Needless to say we had to re-write Astronomy Textbooks. Each time we explore our Solar System we understand it better, yet we find more mysteries to solve. Our humankind must explore, our thirst of knowledge must expand. Thanks to the "Pluto Underground" and the Planetary Society members this mission would not have gotten off the ground.