‘Nailbiting moment of suspense’: Alice sets the date for Pluto-flyby ‘Phone Home’ event in West Seattle

(Recent NASA images: ‘Two faces’ of Pluto)
If you were at Alice Enevoldsen‘s Summer Solstice Sunset Watch last month, you heard Alice mention a plan in the works to host an event the day the New Horizons spacecraft makes its Pluto flyby. The plan’s now in place and she’s sent the details, adding, “As far as I can tell, this is the ONLY day-of Pluto-flyby event in all of Seattle.”

What: Plutopalooza Phone Home!
When: Tuesday, July 14, 2015, 5 – 7 p.m.
Where: High Point Branch Library, 3411 SW Raymond
Who: Everyone welcome, as usual. (Themed craft activity for children approximately ages 3-14, short talk about New Horizons aimed at upper elementary through adult, and NASA TV phone home broadcast for everyone.) Hosted by “West Seattle’s Own” NASA Solar System Ambassador Alice Enevoldsen.

At 4:49 am on July 14th, New Horizons spacecraft will make history as it flies past Pluto, after a journey of more than nine years and 3 billion miles. For much of the day the New Horizons spacecraft will be out of communication with mission control as it gathers data on Pluto and its moons.

At 6:02 pm, on that same day, the spacecraft is scheduled to “phone home” confirming that it completed the rendezvous. This is the nailbiting moment of suspense that we will watch together during the event at the High Point Branch.

While we are waiting for the signal, there will be Pluto-themed activities for kids ages 3 and up, Alice will give a short presentation on the New Horizons mission appropriate for ages 9 through adult, and will be available to interpret the broadcast events as well as answer questions.

P.S. If you want to build a model of the New Horizons craft and bring it with you to the event, I would love to see it. You can also post your West Seattle PlutoTime photos to social media, and tag me: @AlicesAstroInfo.

Library events and programs are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is not required.

Alice also writes periodic Skies Over West Seattle updates for WSB, with advance alerts and info about some of what you’ll see in the sky, including eclipses, planetary conjunctions, meteor showers, and more – they’re archived here.

3 Replies to "'Nailbiting moment of suspense': Alice sets the date for Pluto-flyby 'Phone Home' event in West Seattle"

  • G July 3, 2015 (2:55 pm)

    Don’t blink, New Horizons, you might miss it. Great idea. I’ll be in Pasadena at the Planetary Society doing the same. Eagerly anticipating the first photo’s.

  • John H July 3, 2015 (6:14 pm)

    I’ve been following this daily the last month or so and this is really exciting. Glad Alice brought this up to the WSB. It’s a rare thing when We (humanity) gets to explore a new world that we know very little about.

    The next two weeks (and even a month or so after that while it’s sending back all the data) will be quite exciting.

  • Alice July 6, 2015 (8:26 pm)

    ….aaaaand we’re out of Safe Mode and back to normal operations!
    I was on the media telecon today, and the team sounds confident that the problem that put the spacecraft in safe mode will not happen during the encounter phase. That phase is 9 days long, beginning tomorrow around noon Eastern. Given the nature of the problem, they’re correct, this kind of problem will not happen within the next 9 days.
    Phew! See you all on the 14th!
    .
    Another useful note: we’ll be getting a small amount of daily data or a photo until the 14th (the 14th is scheduled to be ALL engineering data), and then major downlinking begins on the 15th.

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