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New Horizons Wakes at 5.9 Billion Miles, Finds Kuiper Dust

7/17/2026

Summary

Story summary

New Horizons woke on June 23, 2026 after 321-day hibernation, confirming health at 5.9 billion miles.
Controllers received wake-up signal via Deep Space Network Madrid, Spain, after an 8-hour-52-minute round-trip.
Mission managers will downlink data, start three-week Alice ultraviolet spectrograph observations, and keep the probe operating through 2028-2029.
Dust-counter data show a region beyond the Kuiper Belt, suggesting hundreds of dwarf planets and thousands of smaller objects, according to Pontus Brandt.

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Story summary

New Horizons woke on June 23, 2026 after 321-day hibernation, confirming health at 5.9 billion miles.
Controllers received wake-up signal via Deep Space Network Madrid, Spain, after an 8-hour-52-minute round-trip.
Mission managers will downlink data, start three-week Alice ultraviolet spectrograph observations, and keep the probe operating through 2028-2029.
Dust-counter data show a region beyond the Kuiper Belt, suggesting hundreds of dwarf planets and thousands of smaller objects, according to Pontus Brandt.