Claim: New Horizons flew past the largest planet in the Solar System.

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA 's New Frontiers program . Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory -LRB- APL -RRB- and the Southwest Research Institute -LRB- SwRI -RRB- , with a team led by S. Alan Stern , the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015 , and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects -LRB- KBOs -RRB- in the decade to follow .   On January 19 , 2006 , New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 km/s . 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 e6km . The Jupiter flyby provided a gravity assist that increased New Horizons speed ; the flyby also enabled 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 . On December 6 , 2014 , New Horizons was brought back online for the Pluto encounter , and instrument check-out began . On January 15 , 2015 , the New Horizons spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto .   On July 14 , 2015 , at 11:49 UTC , it flew above the surface of Pluto , making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet . On October 25 , 2016 , at 21:48 UTC , the last of the recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons . Having completed its flyby of Pluto , New Horizons has maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object , expected to take place on January 1 , 2019 , when it will be 43.4 AU from the Sun .