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 Earlier this month - December 6, 9:53 pm EST to be exact - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft woke up from hibernation in preparation for "an unprecedented flyby of Pluto" beginning July, 2015. Launched January 19, 2006, the nuclear-powered probe carries seven instruments that will map Pluto and its five known moons. Once past Pluto, New Horizons will set its sights on the Kuiper Belt and return to hibernation for the three- to four-year trip. The Kuiper Belt is four billion miles from the Sun. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, now 12 billion miles from the sun, was the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space, leaving the solar system August 2012.
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Re: Preparing to Greet Pluto
