Excitement Is Building!
New Horizons passed by Mars’ orbital path in April of 2006, did a Jupiter fly by in Feb 2007 and crossed Saturn’s orbital path in June of 2008.
At over 51,000 miles per hour, it had already traveled 1 billion miles to get that far, but wasn’t even half way yet, even after crossing the Uranus orbital path in March of 2011.
Well after 3 billion miles traveled, it finally passed the Neptune Orbit in August of 2014.
It will be at the closest approach to Pluto tomorrow, July 14, 2015 after more than 3.6 billion miles and over 9 and a half year of space flight.
I intend to be glued to the photos and scientific commentary that is sure to follow …