While Americans celebrated the Fourth of July with barbecues and fireworks, a technical glitch 8 million miles away threatened to turn a triumphant mission of discovery by the New Horizons spacecraft into a sputtering dud as it prepares for a close encounter with Pluto next week.

For 90 very long minutes, New Horizons lost contact with Earth. Scientists at NASA’s Planetary Science division initially feared that the spacecraft, which was launched in 2006 and has traveled millions of miles to the edge of the solar system, had met with a catastrophic end by colliding with something.

NASA’s worst fears were allayed once the space agency realized that the craft had merely reverted to “safe mode” status after receiving instructions to do two contradictory things at once. Fortunately, the probe is still fully operational and on course for its scheduled flyby.

Still, the temporary shutdown caused New Horizons to miss an opportunity for some long-distance photography of the dwarf planet. While that is disappointing, the most anticipated part of the mission will occur next week when the spacecraft will zoom within 7,700 miles of Pluto. The photos will be the most detailed of that mysterious world ever taken. These images and the observations the spacecraft will make are the point of the $700 million mission.

After nine and a half years and 3 billion miles in space, New Horizons is on target to give Pluto the close-up it deserves.

Editorial by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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