According to the latest plan recently announced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), "New Horizons" will continue its mission of exploring the outer solar system. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on collecting unique heliophysics data that can be obtained at any time during an extended low-activity operational mode.

NASA's New Horizons mission will continue with an emphasis on heliophysics data collection beginning in 2025. The possibility of future flights through the Kuiper Belt is also being considered. Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the Southwest Research Institute play important roles in this expanded mission. Source: NASA

While science is not currently aware of any reachable Kuiper Belt objects, this new path makes it possible for spacecraft to fly by such an object at close range in the future. It also allows the spacecraft to conserve fuel and reduce operational complexity when searching for attractive flyby candidates.

This image shows New Horizons' current position along its full planned trajectory as of October 10, 2023. The green line segment shows New Horizons' trajectory since launch; the red line segment represents the spacecraft's future trajectory. Source: NASA

unique location in the solar system

"The New Horizons mission is in a unique position in the solar system to answer important questions about the heliosphere and provide extraordinary multidisciplinary science opportunities for NASA and the scientific community," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The agency decided it would be best to extend New Horizons' operation until the spacecraft leaves the Kuiper Belt, which is expected to happen in 2028 to 2029.

This new extended mission will be funded primarily by NASA's Planetary Science Division and jointly managed by NASA's Heliophysics Division and Planetary Science Division.

NASA will assess the budget impact of continuing the New Horizons mission. As a starting point, funding within the New Frontiers program, which includes scientific research and data analysis, will be rebalanced to accommodate the extension of the New Horizons mission, and future projects may be affected.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, launched on January 18, 2006, helps scientists understand worlds at the edge of the solar system by visiting the dwarf planet Pluto (its primary mission) and flying by the Kuiper Belt object Arokos, a two-lobed remnant of the solar system's formation, as well as other, more distant observations of similar objects.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designs, builds and operates the New Horizons spacecraft. The laboratory also manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Office of Planetary Management at Marshall Space Flight Center is responsible for NASA's oversight of New Horizons. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio directs the mission through Principal Investigator Stern and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.