New Horizons

New Horizons (New Frontiers 1 or NF1) is a space probe launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). It is NASA's first New Frontiers mission. It carried out some observation en route, including imaging of Jupiter and Jupiter moons during its Jupiter gravity assist. It flew by Pluto in July 2014 and the very distant trans-Neptune object, 486958 Arrokoth (then known as Ultima Thule, and by its provisional designation 2014 MU₆₉) on January 2019. The mission continues, imaging and collecting data from its unique position, including distant Uranus and Neptune observations. It is traveling above the escape velocity of the solar system, and as of 9/2025, is 62.8 AU from the Sun. Its instrument/communications power should last into the 2030s, and a hope had been that it might succeed in reporting on conditions at 100 AU where it will be in 2038. Instruments:

• LORRI - long-range reconnaissance imager.
• SWAP - solar wind at Pluto.
• PEPSSI - Pluto energetic particle spectrometer science investigation.
• Alice - ultraviolet imaging spectrometer.
• Ralph - 6-cm telescope.
• VBSDC - Venetia Burney student dust counter.
• REX - radio science experiment.