NASA New Horizons Spacecraft Gears Up for Its Flyby of Tiny Pluto (VIDEO)

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has begun its long-anticipated historic encounter with the tiny Pluto. Now, researchers have announced that the spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate on July 14 with the first ever close-up flyby of the dwarf planet, which is located 4.67 billion miles from Earth.

"NASA first mission to distant Pluto will also be humankind's first close up view of this cold, unexplored world in our solar system," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, in a news release. "The New horizons team worked very hard to prepare for this first phase, and they did it flawlessly."

New Horizons first launched into space in January 2006. It then traveled more than three billion miles before awaking from its final hibernation period last month. Now, the spacecraft is set for its rendezvous with Pluto, and will soon pass inside the orbits of the tiny dwarf planet's five known moons.

"We've completed the longest journey any spacecraft has flown from Earth to reach its primary target, and we are ready to begin exploring," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator.

The researchers hope to refine their knowledge of Pluto when New Horizons flies past it. That said, the timing needs to be exact, since the computer commands that will orient the spacecraft and point the science instruments are based on precisely knowing the time that it passes Pluto.

Throughout the first approach phase, which runs until spring, spacecraft instruments will gather continuous data on the interplanetary environment where the planetary system orbits, including measurements of the high-energy particles streaming from the sun and dust-particle concentrations in the inner reaches of the Kuiper belt. Then, more intensive studies of Pluto will begin in the spring when instruments can provide higher resolution images of the planet.

For more information about the New Horizons mission, visit NASA's website.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.

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