New Horizons update and a website roundup

I've just posted a very detailed timeline of New Horizons' encounter with Jupiter -- take a look! A big thanks to John Spencer for providing the mission's science planning spreadsheet to me so that I could put this together. We are in the middle of a quiet period on the flyby. You should check out the images that have been returned so far from the spacecraft at the New Horizons website.

Speaking of John Spencer, he has once again agreed to do a guest stint here at The Planetary Society weblog, and will be posting updates next week. John not only works on New Horizons but also on Cassini, so he certainly has no lack of subjects to talk about! I'll be taking the week off from the blog and will be returning February 12.

It's been a while since I've rounded up the recent postings on this site, so here goes

Amir Alexander is following an important story on the status of NASA's 2007 funding -- a $550 million cut. This situation, especially its implications for science at NASA, is a topic of great interest to The Planetary Society and our members. Louis Friedman gives his perspective on politics inside the Beltway in a recent "From the Executive Director."

Recent Planetary Radio interviews were excellent ones with Cassini RADAR team member Ellen Stofan and (he's everywhere!) New Horizons team member John Spencer.

There's another detailed Mars Exploration Rovers update from A. J. S. Rayl, and news about the shutdown of Hubble's ACS camera, and first light for ESA's COROT planet-hunting spacecraft, and the cancellation of Japan's LUNAR-A mission.

That's it for me for a week. Have fun with John next week!