Uncrewed spacecraftActive
New Horizons spacecraft
Pluto and Kuiper Belt flyby spacecraft
Vehicle and mission dossier
New Horizons
New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006 toward Pluto system, Kuiper Belt, and outer heliosphere. The 1,054 pounds (478 kilograms) spacecraft carried ralph visible/infrared imager, alice ultraviolet spectrograph, lorri camera, rex radio experiment, swap and pepssi particle instruments, and student dust counter. The spacecraft revealed Pluto's nitrogen glaciers, mountains, haze, and active geology, mapped Charon and smaller moons, then showed Arrokoth to be a contact binary assembled gently in the early solar system before continuing heliospheric observations.
Flight profile
- Launch
- January 19, 2006
Places and recovery
Vehicle record
- Arrival / encounter
- Pluto July 14, 2015; Arrokoth flyby January 1, 2019
- Operator
- NASA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas V 551
- Mass
- 1,054 pounds (478 kilograms)
- Destination
- Pluto system, Kuiper Belt, and outer heliosphere
- Payload
- Ralph visible/infrared imager, Alice ultraviolet spectrograph, LORRI camera, REX radio experiment, SWAP and PEPSSI particle instruments, and Student Dust Counter
- Outcome
- Active
- Mission type
- Pluto and Kuiper Belt flyby spacecraft
- Spacecraft mass
- 1,054 pounds (478 kilograms)
- Program
- New Frontiers
- Crew complement
- 0
- Science payload
- Ralph visible/infrared imager, Alice ultraviolet spectrograph, LORRI camera, REX radio experiment, SWAP and PEPSSI particle instruments, and Student Dust Counter
Flight objectives
- Characterize Pluto and its moons, fly through the Kuiper Belt to study a primordial object, and continue , particle, dust, and heliospheric observations in the distant solar system.
- Complete interplanetary cruise, , pluto july 14, 2015; arrokoth flyby january 1, 2019, and commissioning of New Horizons spacecraft.
- Operate navigation, power, thermal, telecommunications, autonomy, science instruments, and permanent planetary-data archive systems across the full mission.
- The spacecraft revealed Pluto's nitrogen glaciers, mountains, haze, and active geology, mapped Charon and smaller moons, then showed Arrokoth to be a contact binary assembled gently in the early solar system before continuing heliospheric observations.
Flight timeline
- January 19, 2006LaunchNew Horizons departs Earth aboard Atlas V 551.
- Pluto flyby July 14, 2015; Arrokoth flyby January 1, 2019Primary encounter milestoneNew Horizons spacecraft reaches its documented planetary or small-body target phase.
- Science milestoneNew Horizons completes the first reconnaissance of Pluto and the first close exploration of a Kuiper Belt objectThe spacecraft revealed Pluto's nitrogen glaciers, mountains, haze, and active geology, mapped Charon and smaller moons, then showed Arrokoth to be a contact binary assembled gently in the early solar system before continuing heliospheric observations.
- Recorded outcomeActiveNew Horizons's observations and returned materials remain part of the permanent planetary archive.