NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Just Woke Up From a Long Nap Ahead of Exploring Beyond Pluto
It takes a long time to reach anything at the edge of our solar system, and sometimes even spacecraft need to take a nap on a long journey. NASA's New Horizons did just that, and the agency says the spacecraft woke itself up on schedule after a 321-day sleep, the longest nap it's ever taken.
Flight controllers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory put the spacecraft to sleep on Aug. 7, 2025, with the world's longest sleep timer. New Horizons woke itself up using its onboard commands on June 23. NASA reports that the spacecraft survived its long sleep without any issues and is "healthy."
"Every status report through this hibernation period was 'green,' meaning all was well aboard New Horizons each and every week," said Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at APL, in a statement on Tuesday.
Exploring Pluto and Arrokoth was New Horizons' primary mission, but...
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