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Missions and Programs

New Horizons Mission

Robotic Outer Solar System and Small-Body Missions

NASA's mission to conduct the first flyby of Pluto and its moons, carried out by the New Horizons spacecraft, aiming to understand the formation of the Pluto system, the Kuiper belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System. It continued to a flyby of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth in January 2019, the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft.

Facts
Mission Type
Robotic outer planet flyby mission 1
Launch Date
2006-01-19 1
Outcome
Successful; returned the first close-up images and data from Pluto on 14 July 2015, then continued to the most distant flyby target explored to date, the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth, on 1 January 2019. 1
Mission Type
Mission Type (category)
Flyby Mission 1
Mission Type (category)
Robotic / Uncrewed Mission 1
Connections

Associated With

New Horizons, Spacecraft

New Horizons is the spacecraft that carried out this mission.

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Pluto, Celestial Objects

Pluto was the mission's primary flyby target, reached on 14 July 2015.

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Operated By

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • New Horizons, Goal section
    The goal of the mission is to understand the formation of the Plutonian system, the Kuiper belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System.
  • New Horizons, lead section
    New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program.
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