NASA probe calls home to say it survived historic Pluto flypast

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has made contact after surviving a flypast of the dwarf planet Pluto. Confirmation of the mission’s success came 13 hours after the flypast itself and more than nine years since the spacecraft began its epic journey to the outer reaches of our solar system. NASA’s associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld hailed it as a “hallmark in human history”.

It’s been an incredible voyage.

NASA's John Grunsfeld

According to NASA, New Horizons came to within 7,700 miles of Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph. The pictures from the closest approach should become available on Wednesday. New Horizons made radio contact with flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab outside Baltimore, Maryland, sparking shouts and applause from the crowd that had gathered for the moment. The survival of the spacecraft was critical to the mission because 99% of the data gathered during the encounter is still on it. The flypast was the culmination of a NASA initiative to survey the solar system that began more than 50 years ago.

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