Clay Bavor

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Flying Cross Country in a New Horizons Space Probe

I wanted to get a sense for what it would be like to look out the window of an airplane flying at the speed of the New Horizons space probe which, as the probe passed Pluto, was about 36,000 mph. Flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet, here’s what that would look like, with windows from a 747 and an SR-71 Blackbird for comparison:

To put 36,000 mph in perspective, at that speed, you’d be able to fly from San Francisco to New York in about five minutes. Of course, you’d also be turned into a ball of searing hot plasma.

SpaceClay Bavor