New Horizons

New Horizons reveals Kuiper Belt object is a contact binary
The distant object that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Jan. 1 is now taking shape as a body — or bodies — unlike any visited by a spacecraft to date.

New Horizons completes flyby of Ultima Thule
NASA’s New Horizons completed a close approach to a small body in the distant Kuiper Belt early Jan. 1, collecting data that may reveal new insights about the formation of the solar system.

New Horizons team looking ahead to another flyby
Even as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft bears down on one object in the Kuiper Belt, the mission team is already thinking about a second potential flyby in the 2020s.

New Horizons ready for Ultima Thule flyby
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is ready to perform a flyby of the most distant solar system object ever, an event largely unaffected by the ongoing government shutdown.

New Horizons planning additional extended missions
While still more than a year away from a flyby of a distant object in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, the team running NASA’s New Horizons mission is already looking ahead to future extended missions that could include another flyby.

NASA rejects plan to send Dawn to another asteroid
A senior review of NASA’s planetary science missions has concluded the Dawn spacecraft should remain in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres rather than venture to another asteroid as project officials proposed.

NASA Blames “Organizational Confusion” for Embargo on New Horizons Results
Scientists involved with NASA’s New Horizons mission showed off the latest analysis of data collected during the spacecraft’s flyby of Pluto in July, despite “organizational confusion” at the event that mistakenly prevented attendees from initially sharing the results with the public.

Op-ed | New Horizons or Financially Limited Horizons?
Finding the resources to reach the planets will require refocusing on domestic politics and shifting the American political environment.

Extended Timetable for Decision on New Horizons Extended Mission
A final decision on an extended mission for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, one that would take it past a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO), won’t come for more than a year, although the project will be taking steps in the coming months to prepare for such a flyby.

Hypothetical ‘Hyper Orbiter’ Faces Long Road to Pluto
New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern is already contemplating a follow-on mission: A Charon lander that could study the surface Pluto’s largest moon while remotely observing the dwarf planet as an orbiter would.

First Closeups of Pluto From New Horizons Wow Scientists
The first set of images and other data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its July 14 flyby of Pluto, returned to Earth July 15, are already causing project scientists to reassess their understanding of the dwarf planet and its moons.

Alan Stern’s Pluto Encore: Words and Sounds
We haven't even seen all the data from the first flyby, but New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern is already thinking about an encore Pluto mission.

New Horizons Successfully Performs Pluto Flyby
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft carried out a flyby of Pluto July 14, collecting images and other data about the distant dwarf planet and its moons that it will spend more than a year returning to Earth.

Send a Lander to Pluto? It’s Definitely Crossed Alan Stern’s Mind
Listen to the New Horizons principal investigator discuss his thoughts about sending a lander to the Pluto system.

As Pluto Recedes, the Wait for New Horizons’ Signal Begins
While New Horizons passed by Pluto this morning, the science team, and the rest of the world, now have to wait the rest of the day to hear back from the spacecraft to find out how well it carried out its flyby.