Reaching for Pluto: NASA Launches Probe to Solar System's Edge Reaching for Pluto: NASA Launches Probe to Solar System's Edge By Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor | January 19, 2006 03:47pm ET MORE NASA's New Horizons spacecraft launches into space on a mission to the planet Pluto and beyond on Jan. 19, 2006. Credit: NASA. This story was updated at 5:09 p.m. EST. NASA's first probe bound for the planet Pluto and beyond rocketed toward the distant world Thursday after two days of delay due to weather. A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket flung the New Horizons spacecraft spaceward at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900), sending the probe speeding away from Earth at about 36,250 miles per hour (58,338 kilometers per hour)- the fastest ever for a NASA mission. The probe should pass the Moon at 11:00 EST (0400 Jan. 20 GMT) on a nine-year trek towards Pluto.

"The United States has a spacecraft on its way to Pluto, the Kuiper Belt and on to the stars," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern during a post-launch press conference. "I have July 14, 2015 emblazoned on my calendar." Initial reports indicate that the probe is in good health. Grounds stations received their first signals from New Horizons at about 2:50 p.m. EST (1950 GMT), which showed the spacecraft's radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) - which uses heat from decaying plutonium dioxide to generate power - is online and performing as expected, mission managers said. "The vehicle looks to be right where it needs to be," NASA launch manager Omar Baez, said just after liftoff. "It was Mother Nature that was holding us back earlier, but we got through it." Weather woes Indeed, nature was the bane of New Horizons' launch from the beginning. Flight controllers were forced to scrub an initial Jan. 17 launch attempt when winds proved too strong at the spacecraft's Complex 41 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

One day later, severe storms in Maryland prevented a second launch attempt when they knocked out power at New Horizons' mission control center at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. The laboratory is managing the mission for NASA. Earlier today, thick cloud cover repeatedly forced flight controllers to push back New Horizons' planned liftoff from 1:08 p.m. EST (1808 GMT), until the weather eased to meet launch guidelines. "It was suspenseful, there was no question," Stern said of today's countdown, holding up a small stub of a pencil. "This has been our mascot for years, this little ground-down pencil...it represents perseverance." New Horizons mission managers took today's launch as an opportunity to honor Pluto's past. Riding aboard the NASA spacecraft are ashes of the late astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Tombaugh died in Jan. 17, 1997, nine years to the day of New Horizons first launch attempt this week.

"I want to point out what a great honor it is to have Clyde's widow [and family] here with us," Stern said of Patsy Tombaugh, her daughter Annette and son-in-law. Jim Kennedy, NASA's Kennedy Space Center director, said earlier this week that a Florida quarter - bearing the image of a space shuttle - is also accompanying the probe to Pluto. Onward to Pluto The $700 million New Horizons mission began in earnest as the probe popped free from its third stage to begin the long, nine-year trek toward Pluto. The spacecraft should swing past Jupiter, grabbing a gravity boost in the process, in late February 2007, NASA officials said. "This mission is going to the far frontier of our solar system," said Richard Binzel, a science team co-investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before today's launch. "In some ways, our basic knowledge about Pluto could fit on a three-by-five inch note card." Pluto is the only member of the traditional nine-planet solar system not visited by a spacecraft, a statistic New Horizons hopes to change.

The probe carries seven primary instruments to study Pluto, its moon Charon and two other objects - currently dubbed P1 and P2 - discovered orbiting the planet last year. The spacecraft is designed to begin observing Pluto about five months before its scheduled flyby in July 2015, which will take place about three billion miles (five billion kilometers) from Earth on the 50th anniversary of Mariner 4's flyby of Mars - NASA's first ever red planet flyby, Stern said. Mission managers expect New Horizons to speed past the planet at about 31,000 miles per hour while using its instrument package to build detailed maps of the planet, as well as study its composition and tenuous atmosphere. About nine months after the encounter, the 1,054-pound (478-kilogram) spacecraft should finish sending its Pluto observations to Earth, which will take about 4.5 hours to reach researchers on the ground. The information New Horizons will send to Earth about Pluto and its moons will likely alter our view of the distant, icy world, researchers said. "I think it's exciting that all the textbooks will have to be rewritten," Stern said.

Thursday's space shot marked the second Atlas 5 launch for NASA - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flight was the first - and the seventh flight overall for the Lockheed Martin rocket. The launch also marked the second success for NASA this week. The space agency's Stardust probe - which collected samples of interstellar dust and fragments of Comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt 2") - landed safely on the Utah desert on Jan. 15. ""This week, NASA has accomplished an amazing one-two punch for...exploration," said Andrew Dantzler, director of the solar system division at NASA's Washington, D.C. headquarters. "It's been a great day." NASA's New Horizons wakes up for close-up with Pluto - CNN.com 1 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon The New Horizons team has discovered a chain of exotic mountains that are covered in methane snow on Pluto. NASA released an image of the snow-capped mountains stretching across the dark expanse of Cthulhu on March 3.

Hide Caption 2 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon NASA released a photo on February 4, 2015, of what it suspects is an image of floating hills on Pluto's surface. The hills are made of water ice and are suspended above a sea of nitrogen. Hide Caption 3 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image made in infrared light shows water ice is abundant on Pluto's surface. The image was created using two scans of Pluto made by the New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, when the probe was about 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers) above Pluto. Hide Caption 4 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This photo shows the the mountainous shoreline of Sputnik Planum. "The mountains bordering Sputnik Planum are absolutely stunning at this resolution," said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute. Read full caption. Hide Caption 5 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image shows the layered interior walls of the planet's many craters.

According to NASA, "layers in geology usually mean an important change in composition or event." However, NASA says the New Horizons team members do not know if they are seeing local, regional or global layering. Most of the craters seen here lie within the 155-mile (250-kilometer)-wide Burney Basin. Learn more at NASA's website. Hide Caption 6 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image shows how erosion and faulting has sculpted Pluto's icy crust into rugged badlands. The prominent 1.2-mile-high cliff at the top is part of a great canyon system that stretches for hundreds of miles across Pluto's northern hemisphere, NASA says. Learn more at NASA.gov. Hide Caption 10 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon These photos show Pluto's variety of textures, including what NASA calls "rounded and bizarrely textured mountains." The mountains are informally called the Tartarus Dorsa. This image shows about 330 miles (530 kilometers) of Pluto's terrain. It combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the space probe's Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera.

The images were taken on July 14, during the probe's flyby. They were released on September 24. Hide Caption 11 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon The photos taken by New Horizons just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14 are the sharpest images to date of Pluto's varied terrain. This high-resolution image reveals details of two ice mountains. The image spans 75 miles (120 kilometers) of Pluto's surface. Hide Caption 12 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image of the surface of Pluto was taken just 15 minutes after NASA's New Horizon spacecraft made its closest approach to the icy planet on July 14. As it looked toward the Sun, the spacecraft's camera captured more than dozen thin layers of haze in Pluto's atmosphere, at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. The photo was downlinked to Earth on September 13. Hide Caption 13 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image of Pluto's icy and mountainous landscapes was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers).

"This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Hide Caption 14 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This picture is a synthesis of new high-resolution images downlinked from New Horizons. The broad icy plains have been nicknamed Sputnik Planum. This image is from a perspective above Pluto's equatorial area. Astronomers began downlinking a data dump from the space craft over Labor Day weekend, September 5 to 7. Hide Caption 15 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Scientists say that what looks like mountains could be huge blocks of frozen water suspended in frozen nitrogen. On the new photos, taken on July 14 and released on September 10, a pixel is 400 meters (440 yards). New Horizons' closest pass by Pluto took it about 50,000 miles from the surface. Hide Caption 16 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Pluto's landscape has lots of variety: plains, mountains, craters and what looks like they might be dunes.

The smallest details on the photos are about half a mile wide. The area with the craters is ancient, scientist say. The smooth frozen planes are relatively young. Hide Caption 17 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft snapped this photo of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The photo was shot at a distance of 290,000 miles away. Charon's north pole region is markedly dark. This photo was released on September 10. Hide Caption 18 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This new image of Pluto is stunning planetary scientists. It shows the small world's atmosphere, backlit by the sun. NASA says the image reveals layers of haze that are several times higher than predicted. The photo was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft seven hours after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14. New Horizons was about 1.25 million miles from Pluto at the time.

Hide Caption 19 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Images taken of Pluto's heart-shaped feature, informally named Tombaugh Regio, reveal a "vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old," NASA said July 17. The frozen region "is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes." NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and traveled 3 billion miles to the dwarf planet. Hide Caption 20 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator revealed a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains. NASA released the image on July 15. Hide Caption 21 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image released on July 15. Hide Caption 22 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon The latest spectra analysis from New Horizons' Ralph instrument was released on July 15. It reveals an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto.

Hide Caption 23 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon NASA team members and guests count down to the spacecraft's approach to Pluto on July 14. Hide Caption 24 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from Pluto's surface. Hide Caption 25 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon The colors in this image of Pluto and Charon are exaggerated to make it easy to see their different features. (These are not the actual colors of Pluto and Charon, and the two bodies aren't really that close together in space.) This image was created on July 13, one day before New Horizons was to make its closest approach to Pluto. Hide Caption 26 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on July 12. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles from Pluto at the time.

Hide Caption 27 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons snapped this photo of Charon on July 12. It reveals a system of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles away when the image was taken. Hide Caption 28 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles from Pluto and Charon when it took this image on July 8. Hide Caption 29 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Do you see a heart on Pluto? This image was taken on July 7 by New Horizons when it was about 5 million miles from the planet. Look to the lower right, and you'll see a large bright area -- about 1,200 miles across -- that resembles a heart. Hide Caption 30 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons took six black-and-white photos of Pluto and Charon between June 23 and 29. The images were combined with color data from another instrument on the space probe to create the images above.

The spacecraft was 15 million miles away when it started the sequence and 11 million miles when the last photo was taken. Hide Caption 31 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Pluto is shown here along with Charon in images taken on June 25 and 27. The image on the right shows a series of evenly spaced dark spots near Pluto's equator. Scientists hope to solve the puzzle as New Horizons gets closer to Pluto. Hide Caption 32 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons took a series of 13 images of Charon circling Pluto over the span of 6½ days in April. As the images were being taken, the spacecraft moved from about 69 million miles from Pluto to 64 million miles. Hide Caption 33 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Look carefully at the images above: They mark the first time New Horizons has photographed Pluto's smallest and faintest moons, Kerberos and Styx. The images were taken from April 25 to May 1.

Hide Caption 34 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons used its color imager to capture this image of Pluto and Charon on April 9. This was the first color image taken by a spacecraft approaching Pluto and Charon, according to NASA. The spacecraft was about 71 million miles away from Pluto when the photo was taken. Hide Caption 35 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon In August 2014, New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune, the last planet it would pass on its journey to Pluto. New Horizons took this photo of Neptune and its large moon Triton when it was about 2.45 billion miles from the planet -- more than 26 times the distance between the Earth and our sun. Hide Caption Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io in early 2007. Hide Caption 37 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon On its way to Pluto, New Horizons snapped these photos of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons. From left is Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Hide Caption 38 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon A white arrow points to Pluto in this photo taken in September 2006 from New Horizons. The spacecraft was still about 2.6 billion miles from Pluto. Hide Caption 39 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon Pluto was discovered in 1930 but was only a speck of light in the best telescopes on Earth until February 2010, when NASA released this photo. It was created by combining several images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- each only a few pixels wide -- through a technique called dithering. NASA says it took four years and 20 computers operating continuously to create the image. Hide Caption 40 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon This was one of the best views we had of Pluto and its moon Charon before the New Horizons mission. The image was taken by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope on February 21, 1994. Hide Caption 41 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons.

Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. Hide Caption 42 of 43 Photos: Pluto on the horizon New Horizons launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on January 19, 2006. The probe, about the size of a piano, weighed nearly 1,054 pounds at launch. It has seven instruments on board to take images and sample Pluto's atmosphere. After it completes its five-month study of Pluto, the spacecraft will keep going deeper into the Kuiper Belt. Hide Caption NASA Launches Spacecraft on the First Mission to Pluto - The New York Times The New York Times Space & Cosmos |NASA Launches Spacecraft on the First Mission to Pluto Search Continue reading the main story NASA launched the first space mission to Pluto yesterday as a powerful rocket hurled the New Horizons spacecraft on a nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to the edge of the solar system.

As it soared toward a 2007 rendezvous with Jupiter, whose powerful gravitational field will slingshot it on its way to Pluto, mission managers said radio communications confirmed that the 1,054-pound craft was in good health. The $700 million mission began when a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket rose from a launching pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 2 p.m., almost an hour later than planned because of low clouds that obscured a clear view of the flight path by tracking cameras. "We have ignition and liftoff of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on a decadelong voyage to visit the planet Pluto and then beyond," declared Bruce Buckingham, NASA's launching commentator. Less than an hour later, all three stages of the booster rocket worked as planned, and the spacecraft separated from them and sprinted away toward deep space. The robot ship sped away at about 36,000 miles per hour, the fastest flight of any spacecraft sent from Earth, allowing it to pass the Moon in about nine hours. Advertisement Continue reading the main story "This is a historic day," said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., the mission's principal scientist and team leader.

Speaking at a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Dr. Stern said the timing assured that the New Horizons would arrive for its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015 -- the 50th anniversary of the first flyby of Mars by the Mariner 4, the mission that began the exploration of the planets. Yesterday's liftoff also paid homage to Pluto's discoverer, the astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh, who in 1930 became the only American to find a planet in the solar system. (He died at 90, in 1997.) His widow, Patricia Tombaugh, 93, and other family members were present at the cape, and some of his remains were among the commemorative items aboard the spacecraft. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy "Some of Clyde's ashes are on their way to Pluto today," Dr. Stern said. The New Horizons is to reach Jupiter's gravitational field in 13 months.

The trip to Pluto will take eight more years, most of which the craft will spend in electronic "hibernation" to save power and wear on the equipment needed for its seven experiments. The New Horizons is powered by a small plutonium-fired electric generator. Its instruments include three cameras, for visible-light, infrared and ultraviolet images, and three spectrometers to study the composition and temperatures of Pluto's thin atmosphere and surface features. It also carries a University of Colorado dust counter, the first experiment to fly on a planetary mission that is entirely designed and operated by students. This is the only experiment that will not hibernate during the mission. In addition to the two-hour delay, the launching was postponed twice in two days -- on Tuesday by strong winds at the cape and on Wednesday by a storm that caused a power failure at the spacecraft's control center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. Mission planners had until Feb. 14 to launch the mission this year, but only until the end of this month to use the gravity boost from Jupiter, which will shorten the trip to Pluto by five years.

Once near its target, the New Horizons is to conduct about five months of studies, including a closest-approach dash that takes it within 6,200 miles of Pluto's surface and 16,800 miles from the planet's large moon, Charon. The craft will also study two smaller moons found late last year by the Hubble Space Telescope and any new features discovered while it is on its way, scientists said. The mission is to continue past Pluto, possibly visiting large objects in the Kuiper Belt, an outer zone of the solar system that includes Pluto. The belt is made up of thousands of icy, rocky objects that include comets and small planets. Scientists believe that this material is left over from the creation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago and that studying it will provide clues to how the Sun and planets formed. NASA - On to Pluto! On to Pluto! 02.02.06 Be the first to learn the new buzz words you'll be seeing in the news and on the Internet! Now you can familiarize yourself with terms like Charon, Kuiper Belt, and a group of friendly sounding names like Ralph, Alice, REX and LORRI.

These terms are all part of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which starts 2006 off with a blast of space exploration. Image to right: This drawing shows what scientists believe the New Horizons spacecraft may encounter on its journey. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will give us our first close-up look of Pluto and its moon Charon. No spacecraft has ever visited the planet, and not even the Hubble Space Telescope can spot details on Pluto's rocky, icy surface. With the New Horizons mission, NASA looks to unlock one of the solar system's great planetary secrets. Pluto is a different type of planet than the inner, rocky planets in our solar system (like Earth) or the outer gas giants. Pluto is an "ice dwarf," an object commonly found in the Kuiper Belt region, billions of miles from the sun. "Exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is like conducting an archeological dig into the history of the outer solar system, a place where we can peek into the ancient era of planetary formation," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, from the Southwest Research Institute Department of Space Studies, Boulder, Colo.

New Horizons launched aboard an Atlas V rocket in late January 2006, and is expected to reach the Pluto system as early as mid-2015. The spacecraft will send back a beacon signal each week to give operators an instant read on the spacecraft's health. For much of the trip to Pluto, the spacecraft will "sleep" in electronic hibernation. Operators will turn off all but the most critical electronic systems and will monitor the spacecraft to check out critical systems, calibrate instruments and perform any needed course corrections. New Horizons operates on less power than a pair of 100-watt household light bulbs. The mission will conduct a five-month-long study of the global geology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto's atmosphere. New Horizons also will study the small moons recently discovered in the Pluto system. Image to left: Workers attach a sophisticated antenna assembly to the New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory The New Horizons science payload includes seven different instruments with catchy names -- Ralph, Alice, REX, LORRI, SWAP, PEPSSI and SDC.

Most of these are acronyms or abbreviations for the functions they perform. You can read the full description of these instruments at the New Horizons site: . "New Horizons will study a unique world, and we can only imagine what we may learn. This is a prime example of scientific missions that complement the Vision for Space Exploration," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Vision for Space Exploration seeks to return the space shuttle safely to flight, complete the construction of the international space station, and take humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars and beyond. Although New Horizons is traveling to the distant reaches of our solar system, it can help you bring science concepts down to Earth for your students. The New Horizons Educator Page ( ) offers educational materials that will help you use New Horizons to excite your students about space science. Related Resources Historic Spacecraft - Probes to the Outer Planets Historic Spacecraft Space Probes to the Outer Planets Comparison of outer planets exploration spacecraft. ( View Larger Version ) Outer Planet Exploration In 1973, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to visit one of the outer planets.

Pioneer 10 would be the first of many spacecraft to journey beyond the asteroid belt. Eight missions have flown to the outer planets, including Pioneer 10 & 11 , Voyager 1 & 2 , Ulysses, Galileo , Cassini , and the New Horizons probe to Pluto . The American Juno mission, the first solar powered spacecraft to visit Jupiter, was launched in 2011 and is currently orbiting the planet. Pioneer 10 and 11 Launched during the early 1970s, Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first probes to investigate space beyond the orbit of Mars. Both spacecraft flew through the asteroid belt and performed flybys of Jupiter. Pioneer 11 went on to flyby Saturn. Both spacecraft are now on interstellar trajectories. Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched on Atlas-Centaur rockets (illustration at right). The spacecraft were spin-stabilized at 4.8 rpm. Power was provided by a pair of Radioisotope Thermal Generators.

Pioneer 10 and 11 Instruments Asteroid-Meteoroid Experiment Pioneer 10 (Pioneer F) Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972. On December 3, 1973, Pioneer 10 encountered the planet Jupiter. Closest approach was around 200,000 km from the planet. This was the first spacecraft to investigate the largest planet in the solar system. Pioneer 10 is currently on an interstellar trajectory and is traveling at 2.6 AU/year. The last communications with the spacecraft were made in 2003. More recent attempts at communication have failed. It is believed that the spacecraft no longer has sufficient power to operate the transmitter. Pioneer 11 (Pioneer G) Pioneer 11 was launched on April 5, 1973. Pioneer 11 passed within 43,000 km of Jupiter on December 2, 1974. On September 1, 1979, Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn.

The spacecraft passed within 21,000 km of the planets atmosphere Pioneer 11 is currently on an interstellar trajectory and is traveling at 2.5 AU/year. The last communication with Pioneer 11 was made in 1995. Pioneer H Pioneer H, identical to Pioneer F and G (10 and 11), served as a backup spacecraft. The mission was unflown. Pioneer H is currently on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Pioneer H on display at the National Air and Space Museum (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2008) Voyager The Mission Voyager 1 and 2 were designed to investigate Jupiter and Saturn, their moons, and interplanetary space. The twin Voyager spacecraft took advantage of an unusual geometric alignment of planets. This alignment would allow a single spacecraft to visit all four of the giant outer planets. Spacecraft would first encounter Jupiter, then Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. If executed correctly, each encounter would increase the spacecrafts velocity and would bend the flight path toward the next planetary encounter. Because their trajectory would send them out of the solar system into interstellar space, attached to each probe was a record disk.

Designed to serve as time capsules, the disks contained information about Human civilization. An advanced civilization, finding the spacecraft in the distant future, could follow instruction etched into the records exterior, showing how to recover information from the disks. The Voyager Spacecraft The three-axis stabilized spacecraft carried a comprehensive array of scientific experiments, allowing both in-situ measurements of particles and fields, as well as remote sensing observations. A series of remote sensing instruments, including television cameras and spectrometers, were mounted on a steerable scan platform. Each Voyager probe was powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). The RTG's were mounted on a boom placed opposite the science boom and scan platform. Each RTG initially provided around 470 watts of 30 volt DC power. Power output has reduced as the plutonium decays over time. Communications with Earth are made using A 3.66 m diameter parabolic high-gain antenna. A low-gain antenna is available as a backup. A ten-sided bus, measuring 1.78 m across, forms the central part of the spacecraft. Computers, data recorders, and other equipment is located in the bus.

Launch Each Voyager spacecraft was launched on a Titan III-E Centaur rocket (right). The Titan rockets were launched from launch complex LC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Voyager 2 launched first on 20 August 1977. Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977. The Giant Planets Voyager 1 conducted a flyby of Jupiter on 5 March 1979, and a flyby of Saturn on 12 November 1980. During its encounter with Saturn, the spacecraft conducted a close flyby of Titan. The Titan flyby forced the spacecraft out of the ecliptic plane and made future planetary flybys impossible. Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter on 9 July 1979, and Saturn on 25 August 1981. The Voyager probes were originally funded for the Jupiter and Saturn flybys only. Voyager 2, however, was still healthy and was on a trajectory that allowed additional planetary encounters. The probes mission was officially extended to allow flybys of both Uranus and Neptune.

A flyby of Uranus was made on 24 January 1986, and Neptune was encountered on 25 August 1989. To this day, Voyager 2 is the only probe to visit Uranus and Neptune. Beyond the Solar System Both spacecraft are still functioning and are currently in an extended mission known as the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM). Voyager Probe Photos Voyager Probe on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009) Spacecraft Bus The spacecraft bus housed electronics and other systems. Science Boom The science boom was around 2.5 meters in length. A steerable scan platform was mounted on the boom. The scan platform allowed instruments to be pointed at specific targets. Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) Voyager probes were powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Each RTG initially provided around 470 watts of 30 volt DC power. Power output has reduced as the plutonium decays over time. Other Details Galileo Jupiter Mission The Mission The Galileo probe was designed to study Jupiter, its moons, and its magnetosphere for a two year primary mission.

The spacecraft included an atmospheric probe to directly study Jupiter's atmosphere. The Galileo probe included both a spinning section and a non-spinning section. A scan platform, attached to the non-spinning section, served as a mounting point for several remote sensing experiments. Scan platform instruments included a solid state imaging camera, an ultraviolet spectrometer, a near-infrared mapping spectrometer, and a photopolarimeter radiometer. The spinning section comprised most of the spacecraft. This section included the main propulsion system, communications equipment, several radioisotope thermoelectric generators, and computers. Fields and particles experiments, including magnetometers, were mounted in this section. The spinning section rotated at three rpm. The spacecraft featured a large, parabolic, high gain antenna designed to facilitate high data rate communications with Earth. The antenna was initially in a collapsed configuration, similar to a closed umbrella. Engineers hoped the collapsed configuration would better protect the antenna during launch and while exposed to strong solar radiation in the inner solar system. Several low gain antennas would facilitate communication during the first years of the mission. The high gain antenna, critical to sending data from the distance of Jupiter, would be unfurled later in the mission. The Galileo spacecraft is named for Galileo Galilei.

Galileo, born on 15 February 1564 in Pisa, Italy, was a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. Among other accomplishments, Galileo was the discoverer of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, the four largest moons of Jupiter. The Galileo spacecraft became the fifth space probe to visit Jupiter. Previous encounters, all flybys, included Pioneer 10 & 11 , and Voyager 1 & 2 . Journey to Jupiter Space shuttle Atlantis (STS-34), launched from Kennedy Space Center on 18 October 1989, carried the Galileo probe to orbit. The Galileo probe was attached to a booster known as an Inertial Upper Stage, or IUS (illustration at lower right). The IUS would fire to start Galileo on its journey to Jupiter. However, the booster would not be powerful enough to send the spacecraft all the way to its destination. Gaining the necessary velocity would require several gravity assists. A trajectory known as VEEGA for Venus-Earth-Earth Gravity Assist would be used. On two occasions, the probe was able to observe asteroids in the asteroid belt.

Gaspra was encountered in October 1991, and Ida was flown-by in August 1993. The asteroid Ida was found to have a tiny moon, later named Dactyl. A serious problem with Galileo's high gain antenna became apparent during the cruise. The antenna, designed to open like an umbrella, failed to open completely. All attempts to fully deploy the high gain antenna failed. Forced to rely on a low gain antenna for communications, the resulting data transmission rate much lower then planned. At Jupiter The atmospheric probe was released on July 1995, nearly five months before arrival at Jupiter. The probe, entered the planets atmosphere on 7 December 1995. The atmospheric probe, equipped with a heat shield and parachute, collected data for nearly an hour as it descended. Data relayed from the probe provided information about the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere. On the same day of the atmospheric probes entry, the main spacecraft fired its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter. During the next eight years, Galileo would conduct 34 orbits of Jupiter. The trajectory was designed to allow many targeted flybys of Jupiter's moons.

Specific attention was given to the four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Eleven flybys of Europa were conducted. Galileo found evidence of a liquid ocean beneath an icy crust. Designed for a two-year primary mission at Jupiter, the condition of the spacecraft allowed for several mission extensions. End of Mission It's mission complete, controllers sent the Galileo spacecraft plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere on 21 September 2003. Controllers wanted to ensure destruction of the spacecraft to prevent any future contamination of Jupiter's moons. Cassini-Huygens In 2004, Cassini became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. Since then, the spacecraft has conducted dozens of orbits, including many targeted flybys of Saturn's moons. Special interest has been given to the enigmatic moon, Titan. Larger then the planet Mercury, Titan has an atmosphere that some scientists believe might resemble Earth's early atmosphere. The nature of Titans surface, obscured by the thick, hydrocarbon rich, nitrogen atmosphere was a mystery before the arrival of Cassini-Huygens. On its seven year journey to Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft carried the Huygens Titan probe.

Developed and built by the European Space Agency, the Huygens probe was designed to descend trough Titans atmosphere, taking photographs and other scientific measurements. If all went well, the probe might survive landing and return data from the surface. Because little was known about the moons surface, Huygens was designed to land on either solid ground or in an ocean. The Cassini spacecraft is named for Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712). Cassini, an Italian astronomer, discovered several moons of Saturn, including Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. The Huygens spacecraft is named for Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695). Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, discovered the moon Titan in 1655. The Journey to Saturn The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched on a Titan IV-B rocket (upper right) on 15 October 1997. The Titan rocket was launched from launch complex LC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket used a Centaur-T (right) to help propel Cassini on its interplanetary journey.

Powered by two RL-10 rocket engines , the Centaur-T is a high-energy, cryogenically fueled upper stage. In order to gain additional speed, the spacecraft conducted flybys of Venus, Earth, and Jupiter, en route to its July 2004 arrival at Saturn. Upon arrival, Cassini used its powerful orbital insertion engine to settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the ringed planet. On the Surface of Titan The Huygens probe plunged into Titans atmosphere on 14 January 2005. The descent, slowed by a parachute in the thick atmosphere, took nearly two and a half hours. Data collected by the probe was transmitted to the nearby Cassini spacecraft and relayed to Earth. Descending through the cloud deck, the probe was able to image the surface through the relatively clear lower levels of Titans atmosphere. The stunning images revealed varied terrain, including hills, dry river channels and clearly defined drainage systems. The probe survived landing and transmitted data from the surface for 70 minutes. The probe landed on a possible dry river bed. Nearby were numerous rocks, believed to be composed of water ice. During the descent and landing, six experiment packages recorded data for transmission to Earth.

Experiments included the Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyser (ACP), Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR), Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE), Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer (GCMS), Huygens Atmosphere Structure Instrument (HASI) and the Surface Science Package (SSP). Photographs of Huygens Probe Model The Huygens probe was the first spacecraft to land on Titan. These photographs are of a model at the London Science Museum. (Photos: Richard and Sharron Kruse, 2009) Orbiting the Ringed Planet The heaviest outer planet probe to date, Cassini is an exceptionally capable explorer. The spacecraft is powered by three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). The three-axis stabilized spacecraft uses both reaction wheels and thrusters to control attitude. A powerful, bi-propellant, propulsion system was used for orbit insertion at Saturn and for major course changes. Experiments on Cassini An array of 12 scientific instruments are carried. The experiments can be divided into three categories, optical remote sensing, fields and particles, and microwave remote sensing.

Optical Remote Sensing Instruments These instruments produce images, both in visible light and other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) Microwave Remote Sensing Using radio waves, the following experiments can measure characteristics of Titans atmosphere and the structure of Saturn's rings. The radar, easily penetrating Titans thick atmosphere, can reveal topographic information of the moons surface. Radar Radio Science (RSS) Exploration Continues The nearly flawless Cassini mission has returned a virtual flood of data on Saturn and her moons. Titan, once shrouded in mystery, now seems like a real world. A world that, in some ways, is not much different from our own. A world that we are sure to explore further in the future. Recently extended to 2017, the Cassini mission will continue to expand our knowledge of the Saturn system for years to come. New Horizons The Mission Launched on 19 January 2006, the New Horizons mission is currently in route to a flyby of Pluto and its moon, Charon. Power is provided by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).

Journey to Pluto The mission launched on an Atlas-V (551) rocket from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. The launch included a Centaur second stage, and a STAR 48B solid rocket third stage. To gain additional speed, the spacecraft performed a gravity assist flyby of Jupiter in 2006. The probe will arrive at Pluto in 2015. If the spacecraft remains healthy, an extended mission may include one or more flybys of Kuiper belt objects. Photos of a New Horizons Mockup These photographs are of a full-size model on display at the Udvar Hazy Center. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009) Juno The Mission The Juno spacecraft, currently orbiting Jupiter, uses a suite of instruments to probe the planets internal structure, composition and magnetosphere. Scientists will use this information to better understand the origins of the gas giant. Juno is the ninth mission to encounter Jupiter. Previous encounters include Pioneer 10 & 11 , Voyager 1 & 2 , Ulysses, Galileo , Cassini , and the New Horizons probe to Pluto .

The Spacecraft Unique amongst outer planet probes, Juno is solar powered. All previous missions flown to Jupiter and beyond have relied on plutonium fueled, radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide electrical current. Jupiter orbits the Sun approximately five times as distant as the Earth. Because sunlight at Jupiter is only 1/25 as strong as near the Earth, Juno includes relatively large solar arrays. Launch and Cruise Juno was launched in August, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch vehicle was an Atlas V-551 rocket . The long cruise to Jupiter took around five years and included a gravity-assist Earth flyby in October 2013. Arrival Juno entered orbit around Jupiter in July, 2016. At Jupiter, the spacecraft entered a highly elliptical polar orbit. Because Jupiter will be rotating, the 33 planned orbits will allow instruments on the spacecraft to investigate the entire surface of the planet. Juno is planned to orbit Jupiter for a little over a year. Upon conclusion of its mission, the spacecraft will be deliberately crashed into the giant planet's atmosphere. Mission planners want to ensure the spacecrafts destruction to avoid any future contamination of Jupiter's moons.

References NASA Spacecraft in Home Stretch of Journey to Pluto NASA Spacecraft in Home Stretch of Journey to Pluto By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | January 19, 2012 01:35pm ET MORE An artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft as it visits Pluto in 2015. Instruments will map Pluto and its moons, providing detail not only on the surface of the dwarf planet, but also about its shape, which could reveal whether or not an ocean lies beneath the ice. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute A super-speedy NASA probe marks six years of spaceflight today (Jan. 19), beginning the last leg of its journey to the small, faraway world of Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft launched Jan. 19, 2006, on a mission to become the first probe to visit the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons. That unprecedented encounter is slated to begin in January 2015, so New Horizons has now entered the home stretch of its nine-year trip, researchers said.

"It's really around the corner," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "We're just more and more excited." Entering 'late cruise' phase The New Horizons team breaks the spacecraft's flight to Pluto into three three-year segments, Stern said — early cruise, mid cruise and late cruise. "We are now turning the corner from mid cruise to late cruise," Stern told SPACE.com. "We're really in the final stages." [ Photos of Pluto and Its Moons ] Late cruise should be a busy time for mission scientists and engineers, as they check out the spacecraft's systems and prepare for the flyby of Pluto and its four known moons . That encounter technically begins in January 2015, Stern said, though closest approach will occur that July, when New Horizons comes within about 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) of Pluto. During the flyby, New Horizons will study Pluto and its moons with seven different instruments, performing the first in-depth reconnaissance of these frigid, far-flung objects.

In fact, researchers have said, the mission will give scientists their first good look at any dwarf planet — a class of bodies suspected to be far more numerous in our solar system than terrestrial and giant planets combined. Artist’s impression of how the surface of Pluto might look. The image shows patches of pure methane on the surface. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada 1 billion miles to go Pluto is found in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune's orbit. As of today, New Horizons has put about 2.14 billion miles (3.45 billion km) on its odometer, with roughly another 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) left to go before the close encounter. The probe's work won't be done after it flies by the Pluto system in 2015. The mission team wants New Horizons to study one or two other Kuiper Belt objects as well. NASA has billed New Horizons as the fastest spacecraft ever launched from Earth. According to the mission team, the probe is now speeding through space at 34,426 mph (55,404 kph) relative to the sun.

While New Horizons spends most of its cruise time hibernating, it's awake for now. Scientists and engineers are performing various tests on the spacecraft throughout January, Stern said, adding that the spacecraft is in good health. 'An American story' The excitement of the New Horizons team has been tempered with some sadness this month, as the scientists mourn the death of Patsy Tombaugh, the widow of Pluto's discoverer. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who died in 1997. Patsy passed away on Jan. 12 at the age of 99. Patsy Tombaugh was very enthusiastic about the New Horizons mission, and the team will miss her a great deal, Stern said. "She was such a wonderful woman," Stern said. "It was sad to see her pass without getting to see what her husband's planet really looked like." But the Tombaughs' two children, Annette and Alden, should get to see what New Horizons discovers. They'll be the mission team's guests of honor when the probe makes its closest approach to Pluto in July 2015, Stern said.

On top of its technical and scientific ambitions, New Horizons is also part of "a very personal story, an American story," Stern said. "I think that just makes it nice." You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall . Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . Editor's Recommendations Pluto Facts - Interesting Facts about Dwarf Planet Pluto Pluto Facts Pluto – Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the second closest dwarf planet to the Sun and was at one point classified as the ninth planet. Pluto is the largest dwarf planet but only the second most massive, with Eris being the most massive. 1.31 × 10^22 kg (0.17 Moons) Orbit Distance: Pluto size compared to the Moon and Earth Pluto’s Distance From Sun Facts about Pluto Pluto is named after the Greek god of the underworld. This is a later name for the more well known Hades and was proposed by Venetia Burney an eleven year old schoolgirl from Oxford, England. Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006.

This is when the IAU formalised the definition of a planet as “A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.” Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory. For the 76 years between Pluto being discovered and the time it was reclassified as a dwarf planet it completed under a third of its orbit around the Sun. Pluto has five known moons. The moons are Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx originally P5 (discovered 2012) official designations S/2011 (134340) 1 and S/2012 (134340) 1. Pluto is the largest dwarf planet. At one point it was thought this could be Eris.

Currently the most accurate measurements give Eris an average diameter of 2,326km with a margin of error of 12km, while Pluto’s diameter is 2,372km with a 2km margin of error. Pluto is one third water. This is in the form of water ice which is more than 3 times as much water as in all the Earth’s oceans, the remaining two thirds are rock. Pluto’s surface is covered with ices, and has several mountain ranges, light and dark regions, and a scattering of craters. Pluto is smaller than a number of moons. These are Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton, and the Earth’s moon . Pluto has 66% of the diameter of the Earth’s moon and 18% of its mass. While it is now confirmed that Pluto is the largest dwarf planet for around 10 years it was thought that this was Eris. Pluto has a eccentric and inclined orbit. This takes it between 4.4 and 7.3 billion km from the Sun meaning Pluto is periodically closer to the Sun than Neptune. Pluto has been visited by one spacecraft.

The New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, flew by Pluto on the 14th of July 2015 and took a series of images and other measurements. New Horizons is now on its way to the Kuiper Belt to explore even more distant objects. Pluto’s location was predicted by Percival Lowell in 1915. The prediction came from deviations he initially observed in 1905 in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Pluto sometimes has an atmosphere. When Pluto elliptical orbit takes it closer to the Sun, its surface ice thaws and forms a thin atmosphere primarily of nitrogen which slowly escapes the planet. It also has a methane haze that overs about 161 kilometres above the surface. The methane is dissociated by sunlight into hydrocarbons that fall to the surface and coat the ice with a dark covering. When Pluto travels away from the Sun the atmosphere then freezes back to its solid state. New Horizons New Horizons New Horizons team members will discuss the achievements of the Pluto encounter and look ahead...

December 22, 2016 Video: What New Horizons might see when it reaches Pluto next July | Science Wire | EarthSky Video: What New Horizons might see when it reaches Pluto next July By Deborah Byrd in Science Wire | Space | July 15, 2014 “Because Pluto has never been visited up-close by a spacecraft from Earth, everything we see will be a first,” said NASA’s Adriana Ocampo. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is only a year away from Pluto. Researchers are buzzing with anticipation as NASA prepares to encounter a new world. The New Horizons spacecraft, one of the fastest ever launched from Earth, left our world in 2006 and is now traveling toward Pluto at nearly one million miles per day. In the past year, scientists have discussed whether the spacecraft might be in danger of collisions with debris in Pluto’s vicinity. They’ve also been searching for a more distant object – an object in the Kuiper Belt – that could become a secondary target for New Horizons after it encounters Pluto. Follow the links below to learn more. New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2014. Check this link to see where New Horizons is now.

Artist’s conception of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, and the very distant sun. Image via Lunar and Planetary Institute When will New Horizons begin its primary mission? New Horizons will pass only 6,000 miles (10,000 km) from Pluto. But NASA said earlier this year that the spacecraft will begin its primary mission in January 2015. That’s when mission controllers will begin photographing Pluto and its largest moon Charon as distant pinpricks in front of the star background, in order to verify Pluto’s location, which is uncertain by a few thousand kilometers. Spacecraft controllers will use the images to refine Pluto’s distance from New Horizons, and then fire the engines to make any necessary corrections. By late April 2015, New Horizons will be taking pictures of Pluto that surpass the best images from the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this image of the Pluto system. The image shows Pluto’s system of at least five moons. The green circle marks the most recently discovered moon, designated P5. Scientists expect to find more moons for Pluto when New Horizons gets there. Image via NASA; ESA; M.

Showalter, SETI Institute Here is a composite image from New Horizons, acquired in mid-2013, which shows Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, cleanly separated from Pluto itself. An average of six different images, each taken with an exposure time of 0.1 second, were needed to create this image. Will dust and debris create a hazard for the New Horizons spacecraft, when the craft sweeps past Pluto in 2015? Pluto resides in the icy realms of the solar system and remains very much a mysterious world. Much to the surprise of astronomers, Pluto now has five known moons. Two of them were discovered after New Horizons launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida in January 2006. Astronomers had some fear that debris hitting the moons might have created dangerous dust clouds that in turn would slam into and damage New Horizons as it sweeps past Pluto in 2015, moving at some 30,000 miles per hour (more than 48,000 kilometers per hour). There was some talk of the possibility of course adjustments, which would carry the craft farther from Pluto, at what might be a safer distance.

In 2013, though, of an impact assessment convinced space engineers to stay the course – that is, to stick with the originally planned trajectory – for New Horizons. They say they now believe the danger posed by dust and debris is less than originally feared. As New Horizons sweeps past Pluto, it’s expected to find more moons for the planet. What more will astronomers find out when the New Horizons probe passes Pluto in 2015? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess, but Pluto fans are sure to enjoy the encounter. This is an artist’s rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering a Kuiper Belt object — a city-sized icy relic left over from the birth of our solar system. The sun, more than 4.1 billion miles (6.7 billion kilometers) away, shines as a bright star embedded in the glow of the zodiacal dust cloud. Jupiter and Neptune are visible as orange and blue “stars” to the right of the sun. Image via JHUAPL/SwRI What’s the status of finding a secondary target for New Horizons?

In June 2014, the Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee said it had recommended using the Hubble Space Telescope to search for an object the Pluto-bound NASA New Horizons mission will be able to visit after its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. Scientists involved in the much-awaited Pluto encounter have wanted to send New Horizons onward to explore an object beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, but, so far, no suitable object has been found. That’s why the Hubble Space Telescope is being recommended for use in the search. If an object beyond Pluto can be found for New Horizons, it’ll be the most distant object yet visited by an earthly spacecraft. The planned Hubble search will involve targeting a small area of sky in search of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) for the outbound spacecraft to visit. The Kuiper Belt is a vast debris field of icy bodies left over from the solar system’s formation 4.6 billion years ago. A Kuiper Belt object has never been seen up close because the belt is so far from the sun, stretching out to a distance of 5 billion miles into a never-before-visited frontier of the solar system.

Bottom line: On July 1-2, 2013, as Pluto reaches its yearly opposition, take a moment to think about the New Horizons spacecraft now en route to the dwarf planet. New Horizons is now past the orbit of Uranus, due to sweep past Pluto in 2015. Recently Pluto scientists decided the danger of collisions with debris in the Pluto system is less than originally feared.

Question: What is the name of the Space Probe launched in 2006 to study Pluto?
Answer: New Horizons