Today is one of those days that in the future you will see listed on the “This Day in History” because of Pluto’s Flyby today!

It has been exciting to see the news stories posted about Pluto’s Flyby today.  It was highlighted in the “Stamp News” portion of the local Stamp Club meeting tonight at the Wilmington Philatelic Society.  It was reported that there is a 29 cent stamp from 1991 on board NASA’s New Horizons probe to Pluto.  It launched in 2006 and has made the journey of more than three billion miles.

Attribution: Image (upper left) 29-cent Pluto ‘Not Yet Explored’ U.S. stamp from 1991 U.S. Postal Service. It is part of a ten-stamp “Space Exploration” set.  (On Twitter @usps, @USPSstamps) 

Twitter has been lit up with #Pluto stories and these articles I found were especially worth noting, in case you haven’t seen them yet.

You may want to start with this article which talks about those three words “Not Yet Explored” on the stamp: “‘Not Yet Explored’ no more: New Horizons flying Pluto stamp to dwarf”planet” is from July 7th by Collect Space (On Twitter @collectSPACE)

The Washington Post has this article: “Why the U.S. Postal Service is excited about NASA’s mission to Pluto” by Joel Achenbach (On Twitter @JoelAchenbach).  It talks about that stamp on board.   There is a comment posted there that encourages checking out the app over at NASA’S Eyes which lets you simulate being there with the New Horizon, (On Twitter @nasa_eyes).

This article on Space.com entitled: “Pluto Flyby Success! NASA Probe Phones Home After Epic Encounter“ is by Mike Wall (On Twitter @michaeldwall  and @SPACEdotcom ).  The article has some great looking video and begins with “The first-ever flyby of Pluto was a big success.  NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent a status update home to its handlers here on Earth, indicating that the probe survived its historic encounter with Pluto this morning (July 14) — and that reams of amazing data should be on the way soon…”   It includes a video “Pluto Flown By! New Horizons Team’s First Impressions”.

And then there is this article by The New York Times “NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Sends Signal from Pluto to Earth” by Kenneth Chang (On Twitter @kchangnyt), with video and a very detailed article including wrap up of news conference that just concluded this evening.

And it all started with that stamp!

Anchors Aweigh,  

Helen