A successful launch, finally: Unmanned Spacecraft Hurtles Toward Pluto
Watched the launch with about 60-odd coworkers, crammed into a hallway where there happened to be a television. The biggest oohs and ahhs came when the solids separated and (especially) when the fairings were jettisoned. There was a lot of disappointment that there was no rocket cam on this flight, though.
Looks like Chicken Little was wrong. Again.
The early word is that we’re within 18 m/sec of the desired velocity (very close!), that we spun down to about 19 rpm, all systems are nominal (communication, command and data handling, guidance & control, etc) and that the power levels from the RTG are a fraction better than promised. There’s always the worry that early mid-course corrections will cost later in the mission, but so far it looks like New Horizons is going to be fine when it gets to Pluto/Charon. Whew!
The bigger the delta-V margin, the better chance they’ll have of getting to another EKBO after Pluto.