posted 08-10-2017 08:25 AM               

The up close, inside story of the greatest space exploration project of our time, New Horizons' mission to Pluto, as shared with David Grinspoon by mission leader Alan Stern and other key players.

On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond.

Nothing like this has occurred in a generation ― a raw exploration of new worlds unparalleled since NASA's Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune ― and nothing quite like it is planned to happen ever again. The photos that New Horizons sent back to Earth graced the front pages of newspapers on all 7 continents, and NASA's website for the mission received more than 2 billion hits in the days surrounding the flyby. At a time when so many think that our most historic achievements are in the past, the most distant planetary exploration ever attempted not only succeeded in 2015 but made history and captured the world's imagination.

How did this happen? Chasing New Horizons is the story of the men and women behind this amazing mission: of their decades-long commitment and persistence; of the political fights within and outside of NASA; of the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission; and of the plans for New Horizons' next encounter, 1 billion miles past Pluto in 2019. Told from the insider's perspective of mission leader Dr. Alan Stern and others on New Horizons, Chasing New Horizons is a riveting story of scientific discovery, and of how much we humans can achieve when people focused on a dream work together toward their incredible goal.

• Hardcover: 320 pages
  
• Picador (May 1, 2018)
  
• ISBN-10: 1250098963
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1250098962

posted 03-11-2018 09:57 AM               

Our book, the 25+ year backstory behind New Horizons to Pluto — the good, the bad, and the ugly — will be out May 1st and our book tour begins the same day! DC, Philly, New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, LA, San Fran, Seattle, Denver and more!

• May 1 - Washington, DC - National Air and Space Museum (1pm)
  
• May 1 - Washington, DC - Politics and Prose (7pm)
  
• May 2 - Philadelphia, PA - Free Library of Philadelphia (7:30pm)
  
• May 4 - New York, NY - Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (7:30pm)
  
• May 5 - New York, NY - The Explorers Club (5pm)
  
• May 6 - Bridgeport, CT - Discovery Museum
  
• May 7 - Boston, MA - Harvard Bookstore (7pm)
  
• May 8 - Boston, MA - Museum of Science (7pm)
  
• May 10 - Ann Arbor, MI - Ann Arbor District Library (7pm)
  
• May 11 - Chicago, IL - Adler Planetarium
  
• May 12 - Houston, TX - Space Center Houston
  
• May 14 - San Francisco, CA - California Academy of Sciences (7:30pm)
  
• May 15 - Los Altos Hills, CA - Foothill College (7pm)
  
• May 16 - Los Angeles, CA - Griffith Observatory (7:30pm)
  
• May 17 - Seattle, WA - The Museum of Flight (7:30pm)
  
• May 19 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Bookstore (5pm)
  
• May 20 - Denver, CO - Tattered Cover (2pm)

posted 05-13-2018 03:56 PM               

Written beautifully by Alan Stern, the Principal Investigator, and astrobiologist and author David Grinspoon, the saga of New Horizons is filled with trials and tribulations. Stern started his quest for an unmanned mission to Pluto in 1989. It took over a dozen years to get NASA to approve the mission and the project was like a cat with nine lives, facing budget cuts and cancellations. It took years then to build the spacecraft with all kinds of technical trade-offs explained clearly.

New Horizons was finally launched January 19, 2006, almost 17 years later. The ultimate in delayed scientific gratification, it did not reach Pluto until July 14, 2015.

The book expertly describes its voyage and last minute scares, including loss of signal 10 days before encounter. The treasure trove of science and spectacular pictures are discussed in an understandable way. This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in space exploration, planetary science, and astronomy, in addition to being a great tale of curiosity, persistence, and eventually triumph.