Fly-By of Pluto Mere Hours Away

The New Horizons Spacecraft is expected to make it's closest approach to Pluto in less than 14 hours from now. Thus the craft's nearly 9 and a half year journey to Pluto will be complete (although the mission itself will continue on past Pluto for some time). A sample of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of the (dwarf) planet Pluto, are on board the New Horizons spacecraft, so after 85 years, Clyde and his planet will finally get the chance to meet!

The nearest approach to Pluto will occur at 11:49 UTC on July 14th (7:49 AM Eastern/4:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time). You can follow the progress of the spacecraft at the primary Johns Hopkins mission site or the NASA Pluto site.