On This Day
A daily chronicle of humanity in space. Every launch, landing, spacewalk, and first — the moments that mark the space age, told day by day. From Sputnik to the James Webb Space Telescope, the story is the same one told over and over: people looking up, and going.
July 14
New Horizons
Mission
New Horizons
Series
NASA
Venue
Pluto system
Date
July 14, 2015
Agency
NASA
Nickname
New Horizons makes the first flyby of Pluto
Crew
Alan Stern
New Horizons makes the first flyby of Pluto
After a nine-year journey, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made humanity's first close flyby of Pluto, returning stunning images of its heart-shaped nitrogen plain. The mission completed the initial reconnaissance of the classical planets and revealed Pluto as a geologically active world.
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