6:30 PM - FREE showing of the IMAX film Cosmic Voyage. This Academy-Award nominated 40-minute film examines some of history's greatest scientific theories regarding the vastness of the universe.

7:30 PM - Meet the Lecturer

8 PM - Lecture

Over a year into its journey, the fastest spacecraft ever launched is on a trek to a place where no spacecraft has traveled before. New Horizons will encounter Jupiter in February 2007 and reach distant Pluto in 2015. The first mission to Pluto will seek answers to longstanding questions about Pluto's surface, atmosphere, interior, and moons, and on a possible extended mission, explore an icy body of the Kuiper Belt. S. Alan Stern will describe the science behind New Horizons, development of the complex spacecraft and its instrument payload, and the mission's current status.

S. Alan Stern is the Principal Investigator for New Horizons and the Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

This lecture is free, but tickets are required. 

This is the final lecture of the series.

The Exploring Space Lectures are made possible by the generous support of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Aerojet, with contributions from NASA.