The Heart of the Pluto Flyby.
Photographer Michael Soluri spent time with those responsible for the 9.5 year mission of the Pluto flyby, in order to to capture the spirit of the encounter.
Mr Soluri mentioned his inspiration came from wanting to know about the people who make these scientific achievements possible, saying: "I have always been struggling to find the humanity in space exploration, on Earth and above.”
“I brought my sons down to the Air and Space Museum in 1984 or 1985. I took them in, and there was an exact replica of the Viking lander. So we're looking at it, and there's this big robot and I'm seeing all this text, and something's puzzling me: I didn't see the picture of the person who made it possible. And I held on to that for like 20 years."
1. Operations manager Alice Bowman shares the secret behind the Pluto flyby (Dec 2014).
2. Drawings of New Horizons.
3. Mission leader Alan Stern with a portrait of New Horizons at the launch. (January 2006).
4. Alan Stern and members of the flight team toast New Horizons after it came out of hibernation (December 2014).
5. Engineers in clean room “bunny suits” put New Horizons through pre-launch tests (June 2005).
6. Alice Bowman listens for the signal that New Horizons completed its July 14th flyby.
7. Members of the science team react to the first full frame photo of Pluto from the flyby.
All Photos and Info from The Smithsonian Mag.
