NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has successfully exited hibernation mode, which lasted record times 321 day. According to an official announcement on NASA Science, the probe is turned on by an internal timer 23 June 2026 year, being at a distance 9.5 billions of kilometers (5.9 billions of miles) from Earth. All systems of the device function normally, and weekly signals confirmed its excellent technical condition.
Key facts about New Horizons
Duration: The device was in deep energy saving mode 7 August 2025 year is the longest period of flexible sleep in the entire history of the mission (starting with 2007 year, the probe fell asleep 23 times).
Huge signal delay: Over a colossal distance, the radio signal from New Horizons to the ground control station of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) almost goes 9 hours.
Autonomous passivity: During hibernation, the device rotated around its axis for stabilization, did not receive commands from Earth and did not send arrays of data, however, its internal instruments continued to passively capture the environment.
Famous for the first ever flyby of Pluto (2015) and the asteroid Arrokot (2019), the probe now serves as a unique deep space observatory in the Kuiper Belt:
Study of the heliosphere: In a few weeks, the device will start measuring the hydrogen concentration, plasma and cosmic dust at the far reaches of the Sun's influence.
Analysis of the "boundary of the shock wave": The data will help physicists understand the processes in the termination shock zone, where the solar wind slows down, colliding with the interstellar medium.
Engineers will test the new logic of the device's autonomy, оптимізованої для роботи в умовах критичного зниження енергії від радіоізотопного генератора.
Подальша доля місії розрахована до 2028–2029 років, після чого New Horizons остаточно покине Пояс Койпера та вийде у міжзоряний простір, повторивши шлях легендарних апаратів Voyager.
Source: https://lookintothe.space