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New Horizons spacecraft
- NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close, flying by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015.
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Jan 19, 2006 · New Horizons was the first spacecraft to encounter Pluto, a relic from the formation of the solar system. By the time it reached the Pluto system, the spacecraft had traveled farther away and for a longer time period (more than nine years) than any previous deep space spacecraft ever launched.
- Pluto: Exploration - NASA Science
New Horizons was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and...
- 15 Years Ago: New Horizons Launched to Pluto and Beyond
The spacecraft made its first observation of the remote...
- Pluto: Exploration - NASA Science
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New Horizons was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and its five moons up close and, later, made the first close exploration of a Kuiper Belt Object. Learn More
In 1964, Gary Flandro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed a mission called Grand Tour, taking advantage of the fact that an alignment of planets in the late 1970s would enable a single spacecraft to visit all of the outer planets, including Pluto, by using gravity assists. [4]
The New Horizons mission was the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moons, making a flyby on July 14, 2015, and taking detailed measurements and observations. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, making it by far the first known object in the Kuiper belt.
Oct 20, 2021 · NASA 's New Horizons became the first spacecraft to visit dwarf planet Pluto in July 2015. The far-traveling spacecraft also visited a distant Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) –...
Jan 20, 2021 · The spacecraft made its first observation of the remote object on Aug. 16, 2018, at a distance of 107 million miles, with Ultima Thule appearing only as a tiny dot. Even up to 24 hours before the closest approach, it appeared as just an elongated shape.
Feb 18, 2015 · The astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh, then a 24-year-old research assistant at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., was the first to find photographic evidence of a ninth planet on this day,...
