飞向冥王星的新地平线号(New Horizons)

Passing the Moon

The first body New Horizons passed after launch was our own Moon, just eight hours and thirty five minutes after liftoff on Jan. 19, 2006. New Horizons reached the closest distance to the Moon before crossing lunar orbit.

New Horizons passed the Moon's orbit nine hours after launch.

Passing the Orbit of Mars

New Horizons' trailblazing journey to the solar system's outermost frontier took it past the orbit of Mars at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 UTC) on April 7, 2006 - 78 days after the spacecraft launched.

At the time, because of Mars' position in its orbit, New Horizons was actually closer to Earth than to Mars - just 93.5 million kilometers (58.1 million miles) from home, compared to 299 million kilometers (186 million miles) from the red planet. Speeding away from the Sun at 21 kilometers (about 13 miles) per second, the spacecraft crossed Mars' path some 243 million kilometers (151 million miles) from the Sun - close to the farthest point in Mars' elliptical 687-day orbit.

Passing the Orbit of Jupiter

New Horizons reached a major planetary milestone on February 28, 2007, when it made its closest approach to Jupiter. New Horizons used Jupiter's powerful gravity to boost its speed and adjust its course toward Pluto and the Kuiper Belt; the close range of the Jupiter flyby allowed New Horizons to make important scientific observations and to test procedures for its Pluto encounter in 2015.

Passing the Orbit of Saturn

New Horizons crossed the orbit of Saturn on June 8, 2008. Spinning in stable electronic hibernation, New Horizons reached a distance of 935 million miles (about 1.5 billion kilometers) from the Sun at 10:00 UTC, becoming the first spacecraft to journey beyond Saturn’s orbit since Voyager 2 passed the ringed planet nearly 27 years ago.

Voyager 1 and 2, at the edge of the Sun’s heliosphere some 100 astronomical units away, are the only spacecraft operating farther out than New Horizons.

Next up: Uranus

New Horizons passes the orbit of Uranus on March 18, 2011.