New Horizons, NASA’s Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission

Dr. Jeffrey Moore, NASA

In 2006, NASA dispatched an ambassador to the planetary frontier, The New Horizons spacecraft. After 10 years and more than 3 billion miles, on a historic voyage that has already taken it over the storms and around the moons of Jupiter, New Horizons has shed light on new kinds of worlds on the outskirts of the solar system. On July 14, 2015, New Horizons flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto and continues into rare territory, as just the fifth probe to traverse interplanetary space so far from the sun and the first ever to travel to Pluto.