June 17, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Michael J. Neufeld is a Senior Curator at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in the Division of Space History. He’s going to share the story of one of the most ambitious planet ary flyby missions ever attempted: the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Now that the flyby has been successfully completed, providing breathtaking images of the bizarre surfaces of Pluto and Charon, and the suite of tiny moonlets that orbit this unique double planet, it's easy to forget all the technological risks and leaps of faith required to send the New Horizons spacecraft on a journey of 7.5 billion kilometers. The talk will conclude with some of the amazing images obtained during the flyby, which are still being beamed back to Earth from the spacecraft.

Some interesting background for this presentation, telling the story of the institutional politics and battles over funding for space exploration, appeared as the cover story for the April, 2016 Physics Today.

Target Audience: Older students and adults; About 1 hour.

Our capacity is 58 seats. We set aside 20 seats to accommodate those who arrive without a reservation, so if the show is sold out you can still try to attend by arriving close to 7 p.m. However, although we will do whatever we can to seat all comers, there is no guarantee of admission without a reservation.