Space: New Horizons (space probe)

American interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program to study the dwarf planet Pluto, its natural satellites, and one or two Kuiper Belt objects, depending on which are in position to be explored. The mission was approved in 2001 following the cancellation of the Pluto Fast Flyby and Pluto Kuiper Express.

The mission profile was proposed by a team led by principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. After several delays on the launch site, New Horizons was launched on 19 January 2006 from Cape Canaveral.

Launched directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph), it set the record for the highest velocity of a human-made object from Earth.

On 15 January 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto. On 14 July 2015, at 11:49 UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, which at the time was 34 AU from the Sun, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet.