Reply To: What if?

[SteveInCO]

Davis wrote:

@steveinco by orbit I meant when it was first launched and was in orbit around the Earth for some time before it headed for Pluto…but maybe this is incorrect as well.

That sort of thing does happen, but according to Wiki, it was launched directly onto its trajectory. Various technical and weather snafus almost caused it to miss this window, in which case it would have to have gone out there without the velocity boost from the Jupiter flyby… and if that had happened, we’d still have two to four years to wait.

I find it astounding that we could even THINK of a direct launch to Pluto. That is one hell of a lot of rocket power.