NASA Programs
New Horizons
The first reconnaissance of Pluto and a Kuiper Belt encounter beyond.
New Horizons launched in January 2006 on a fast trajectory to Pluto, using a Jupiter gravity assist in 2007. On 14 July 2015 it flew past Pluto and Charon, returning the first close-up maps of a world that had been only a point of light for eighty-five years.
The encounter revealed nitrogen glaciers, towering water-ice mountains, a hazy atmosphere and a complex system of small moons. In 2019 the spacecraft flew past Arrokoth (2014 MU69) in the Kuiper Belt—the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft at that time.
New Horizons continues on an escape trajectory, observing the heliosphere and distant objects as power and distance allow.
Milestones
- 2006-01-19Launch — New Horizons leaves Earth atop an Atlas V.
- 2015-07-14Pluto flyby — First close reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon.
- 2019-01-01Arrokoth — Kuiper Belt flyby of Arrokoth.
Summary original to flyARIA.com. Photograph: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI. NASA images are generally not protected by copyright in the United States; credit does not imply endorsement.