New Horizons, a plutonium-powered spacecraft, was launched at Cape Carnival FL today. The speed of the spacecraft at launch was 16km/second, making it the fastest man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere. New Horizons is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015. Pluto is the only one of the nine planets which has not been explored by a space probe. So little is known about Pluto that the information "could fit on the back of a postage stamp" according to NASA deputy administrator Colleen Hartman. The mission of the probe is to learn more about Pluto and the origins of our solar system.
Read the fascinating ABC article on the launch here.
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