New Horizons woke up from hibernation on December 6, 2014 after a 4.8 billion km voyage (3 billion miles) and almost nine years after launch. The spacecraft is now preparing for a six-month encounter with Pluto that begins in January 2015.
This mission will complete the initial reconnaissance of the Solar System and help us understand worlds at the edge of it by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of Solar System formation.
The US National Academy of Sciences has ranked the exploration of the Kuiper Belt – including Pluto – of the highest priority for Solar System exploration...
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