For other uses, see New Horizons (disambiguation).

New Horizons

Artist's concept of New Horizons when it reaches Pluto in

July 2015
Mission type
Operator
COSPAR ID
SATCAT

Pluto flyby
NASA
2006-001A
28928
pluto.jhuapl.edu
Website
www.nasa.gov
Mission duration Primary mission: 9.5 years

Manufacturer
Launch mass
Power

Spacecraft properties
APL Southwest Research Institute
478 kilograms (1,054 lb)
228 watts

Launch date

Start of mission
January 19, 2006 19:00 UTC

Rocket
Launch site
Contractor

(9 years, 3 months and 14 days ago)

Atlas V 551
Space Launch Complex 41
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida,
United States
International Launch Services

Flyby of Moon
Closest approach January 20, 2006 04:00 UTC

(9 years, 3 months and 13 days ago)

Distance

189,916 km (118,008 mi)

Flyby of (132524) APL (incidental)
Closest approach June 13, 2006 04:05 UTC

(8 years, 10 months and 20 days ago)

Distance

101,867 km (63,297 mi)

Flyby of Jupiter (Gravity assist)

Closest approach February 28, 2007 05:43:40 UTC
(8 years, 2 months and 5 days ago)

Distance

2,300,000 km (1,400,000 mi)

Flyby of Pluto
Closest approach July 14, 2015 11:49:59 UTC
(101 days to go)

Distance

12,500 km (7,800 mi)

New Horizons' current position

Pluto and Charon - first color image from the New Horizons mission (Ralph; April 9, 2015).
[1][2]

New Horizons is a NASA space probe launched to study the dwarf planet Pluto, its moons
and one or two other Kuiper belt objects, depending on which are in position to be explored.

Part of the New Frontiers program, the mission was approved in 2001 after cancellation of
Pluto Fast Flyby and Pluto Kuiper Express. The mission profile was proposed by a team led
by principal investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute. After several delays on
the launch site, New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 from Cape Canaveral,
directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative speed of about 16.26
kilometers per second (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph); it set the record for the highest launch
speed of a human-made object from Earth.
After a brief encounter with asteroid 132524 APL, New Horizons proceeded to Jupiter,
making its closest approach on February 28, 2007 at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers
(1.4 million miles). The Jupiter flyby provided a gravity assist that increased New Horizons'
speed by 4 km/s (14,000 km/h; 9,000 mph). The encounter was also used as a general test of
New Horizons' scientific capabilities, returning data about the planet's atmosphere, moons,
and magnetosphere. Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to
preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts.[3] On 6 December 2014, New
Horizons was brought back on-line for the encounter, and instrument check-out began.[4] On
January 15, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto, which will
result in the first flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015.[5]

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