Open The Solar System’s Express Lane!
On Jan. 19, 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft roared off the pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and into the record books. Perched atop a giant Atlas V rocket, the lightweight probe accelerated to about 36,000 mph, the fastest object ever launched by humans. It outdistanced the moon in nine hours, reached the orbit of Mars in 11 weeks and swung around Jupiter in February 2007. Then came the great wait. New Horizons will fly by Pluto this July and, if all goes well, return the first detailed images of the…
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