At 2 p.m. Eastern time on January 19th. 2006. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft began its decade-long
journey to Pluto from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The spacecraft rode aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket. headed for a distant rendezvous with the mysterious celestial body.
The historic 3-billion-mile voyage has already taken New Horizons over the storms and around the moons of Jupiter.
The spacecraft will shed light on new kinds of worlds only just discovered on the outskirts of the solar system.
As Pluto gets closer by the day. New Horizons continues into rare territory. as just the fifth probe to traverse
interplanetary space so far from the Sun. The New Horizons spacecraft is well on its way
to its dramatic fly-by of the icy world and its moons in July 2015.