About 13 hours after its closest approach to the dwarf planet, news that the craft was still intact was vital to the mission with 99 percent of the data gathered during the encounter still on the space ship. Managers had estimated there was a 1-in-10,000 chance a debris strike could destroy New Horizons as it soared just 12,472 km from Pluto. It will take about 16 months for the probe to transmit back all the thousands of images and measurements taken during its pass by of Pluto. By then the spacecraft will have travelled even deeper into the Kuiper Belt heading for a possible follow-on mission to one of Pluto’s cousins .
INC News, 15/07/2015 - via Euronews
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