New Horizons: One Billion Miles From Pluto

Posted by Soulskill on Monday February 13, 2012 @07:56AM from the investigating-a-planetary-imposter dept.

astroengine writes "On Feb. 10, NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons probe entered the homestretch of its mission. When you are sprinting across the solar system, 'homestretch' is the final 1 billion miles of your journey. That sounds like quite a long stretch! But the half-ton spacecraft has already logged 2 billion miles since its launch in early 2006. That's twice the distance between Earth and Saturn. Though the icy dwarf planet is still three years away from its close encounter, mission scientists call this the Late Cruise phase of the flight."

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Surprise!! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-13 07:58 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Elon Musk will already have developped condos there and have PayPal terminals so you can buy Starbucks there!
1. Re:Surprise!! by game+kid · 2012-02-13 08:14 · Score: -1, Offtopic
  
  He's too slow then. YouTwitFace Holdings has already set up FarmVille kiosks (24hrs of unlimited play for 50 Facebook credits!), OLED celebrity tweet billboards (brought to you by Sony), and cute 1-inch-wide plastic Like and follow buttons on every geological feature (all connected via WiFi).
  
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  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.