Exciting news. Next week on July 14, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, after a very long journey of nearly a decade, will fly past Pluto and become the first spacecraft to make a close approach to this body (who was until recently classified as the ninth planet of our solar system). On the arrival date, this will be the 50th anniversary of the first spacecraft arrival of planet Mars, Mariner 4.

New Horizons carries on board the ashes of the man who discovered the dwarf planet, Clyde Tombaugh. When he passed away in 1997, he specifically requested his ashes go to space. NASA decided to honor him and to to put his remains on the spacecraft. This is bringing Tombaugh closer to the space body that he discovered in 1930.

Besides his discovery, Clyde Tombaugh is also famous within the Ufological community because he was one of the first astronomers pushing for research into UFO’s (unidentified flying objects) and also because he had observed UFO at different times.

The below link points to the essay from Michael D. Swords, “Clyde Tombaugh, Mars, and UFOs”, (p 128-137). Published in 1999 in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, it provides today a good relevant Ufological reference to the exiting news that we are about to hear from the far side of the solar system.

http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/volume-13-number-4-1999