  NASA's New Horizons (NH) Pluto-Kuiper belt (PKB) mission was launched on 19
January 2006 on a Jupiter Gravity Assist (JGA) trajectory toward the Pluto
system for a 14 July 2015 closest approach; Jupiter closest approach occurred
on 28 February 2007. It was competitively selected by NASA for development on
29 November 2001. New Horizons is the first mission to the Pluto system and the
Kuiper belt; and will complete the reconnaissance of the classical planets. The
~400 kg spacecraft carries seven scientific instruments, including imagers,
spectrometers, radio science, a plasma and particles suite, and a dust counter
built by university students. NH will study the Pluto system over a 5-month
period beginning in early 2015. Following Pluto, NH will go on to reconnoiter
one or two 30-50 kilometer diameter Kuiper belt Objects (KBOs), if NASA
approves an extended mission. If successful, NH will represent a watershed
development in the scientific exploration of a new class of bodies in the solar
system - dwarf planets, of worlds with exotic volatiles on their surfaces, of
rapidly (possibly hydrodynamically) escaping atmospheres, and of giant impact
derived satellite systems. It will also provide the first dust density
measurements beyond 18 AU, cratering records that shed light on both the
ancient and present-day KB impactor population down to tens of meters, and a
key comparator to the puzzlingly active, former dwarf planet (now satellite of
Neptune) called Triton, which is as large as Eris and Pluto.
