Washington, Ramadan 28, 1436, Jul 15, 2015, SPA -- The New Horizons spacecraft successfully made contact with mission control after becoming the first craft to fly by the dwarf planet Pluto. Scientists broke into applause at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland at 8:52 pm Tuesday (0052 GMT Wednesday) as the spacecraft sent back signals that showed all systems were operating normally and conveying data. "Just like we planned it," said Alice Bowman, missions operations manager. The team had celebrated the moment the New Horizons spacecraft was calculated to fly the closest to Pluto early Tuesday, even though the first signal from the craft to confirm its historic approach was received only a little more than 13 hours later. During and immediately after the fly-by, the probe's systems were dedicated to collecting and processing data, not communicating. Once the signals to confirm the spacecraft's health were sent, they took around four hours to reach Earth. The information received early Wednesday showed the craft was on the right timeline, had received no error messages and was healthy, scientists said. --SPA 13:38 LOCAL TIME 10:38 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w