# Where is New Horizons now? > New Horizons' distance from Earth, live. The spacecraft that showed us Pluto's heart in 2015 and flew past Arrokoth, the farthest world ever explored. HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/new-horizons Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:43 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page. New Horizons is about 9.9 billion kilometres from Earth, deep in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. It gave us our first close look at Pluto, on 14 July 2015. On 1 January 2019 it flew past Arrokoth, the most distant world any spacecraft has explored. As of 22 October 2026 it travels 13.58 kilometres every second relative to the Sun. Since you opened this page, it has travelled another [counts up live on the page] kilometres. In June 2026 it woke from its longest sleep yet, in good health. - New Horizons' speed relative to the Sun: 13.58 km/s - Time since New Horizons flew past Pluto: 11 y 108 d 21 h - Time since New Horizons flew past Arrokoth: 7 y 303 d 4 h - Time since New Horizons' launch: 20 y 284 d 8 h ## Out among the ice How far is that? New Horizons is a robotic spacecraft that NASA launched in 2006 to make the first visit to Pluto. After Pluto it flew on to a second, smaller world, and it is still heading outward. Line up the spacecraft we have sent away from Earth. The space station stays close to home. The James Webb Space Telescope works about 1.6 million kilometres out. Juno circles Jupiter. Next comes New Horizons, about 9.9 billion kilometres away. Only the two Voyagers are farther. Neptune, the last planet, circles the Sun at about 30 times Earth's distance. New Horizons is far past it, in the Kuiper Belt. This is a wide ring of icy bodies left over from when the planets formed. Pluto is the best known of them. Out here sunlight is faint, and a radio message needs many hours to cross the gap. Yet the craft still listens, measures and answers. ## The fastest start 19 January 2006 New Horizons left Cape Canaveral on 19 January 2006. It is about the size and shape of a baby grand piano, and weighed 478 kilograms at launch. Its last rocket stage pushed it to 16.26 kilometres per second relative to Earth. NASA calls it the highest launch speed any object we have made has reached. On 28 February 2007 it swung past Jupiter. The giant planet's gravity added speed and cut years off the trip. Even so, the crossing to Pluto took 9.5 years. For long stretches the team let it hibernate, to save wear and fuel. Each week it sent home a simple beacon to say all was well. ## A world with a heart 14 July 2015 On 14 July 2015 New Horizons swept past Pluto, about 12,000 kilometres above its surface. After almost a decade in flight, it arrived about a minute earlier than planned. The last picture sent before the flyby showed a bright, heart-shaped region about 1,600 kilometres across. Its western half is a vast plain of frozen nitrogen, named Sputnik Planitia after the first satellite. NASA calls it the largest known glacier in the solar system. Much of the heart looked strangely smooth. It was a first hint that Pluto may not be a dead, frozen rock. Its icy plains may still be changing, far from the Sun's warmth. ## News that took hours to come home 15 July 2015 At Pluto, New Horizons was so far away that its radio signal took 4 h 25 m 19 s to reach Earth. During the flyby the team could only wait. Early on 15 July, by universal time, a short burst of status messages arrived. The flyby had worked, and the craft was healthy. Then came the slow part. So far from home, New Horizons could send only a trickle of data each second. The last of the Pluto flyby data reached Earth on 25 October 2016, more than a year later. Every picture of that heart arrived one small piece at a time. ## The farthest world we have visited 1 January 2019 After Pluto, the team steered New Horizons towards a much smaller target. It was a Kuiper Belt object found with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. Its name, Arrokoth, means "sky" in the Powhatan/Algonquian language. On 1 January 2019 New Horizons passed within 3,538 kilometres of it. It was 6.6 billion kilometres from Earth, the farthest exploration of any world so far. Arrokoth turned out to be two rounded lobes resting against each other, like a flattened snowman, and very red. Its two parts most likely formed separately and merged gently, early in the solar system's history. It is a piece of the material the planets were built from. ## Where it goes next As of 22 October 2026 New Horizons still moves outward at 13.58 kilometres per second relative to the Sun. The Sun's pull can no longer turn it around. On 23 June 2026 the team confirmed it had woken, in good health, from a hibernation of nearly a year. While it slept, its instruments kept sampling the solar wind, charged particles and dust. NASA plans to keep it working until it leaves the Kuiper Belt, expected in 2028 or 2029. The team is also searching for another small world it could reach, though none is known yet. Like the Voyagers before it, New Horizons is heading for the edge of the Sun's bubble, carrying a little of us with it. ## FAQ ### How far is New Horizons from Earth right now? About 9.9 billion kilometres. The distance grows every second. Over a year it also wobbles a little, because Earth moves around the Sun while New Horizons moves steadily away. ### How fast is New Horizons going? About 13.58 kilometres per second relative to the Sun, as of 22 October 2026. At launch it left Earth at 16.26 kilometres per second, the fastest launch of any spacecraft. The Sun's gravity has slowed it since, and Jupiter sped it up along the way. ### How long did it take New Horizons to reach Pluto? About 9.5 years. It launched on 19 January 2006 and flew past Pluto on 14 July 2015. A pass by Jupiter in 2007 shortened the trip. ### Is New Horizons still working? Yes. On 23 June 2026 the team confirmed it had woken in good health from a hibernation of nearly a year. NASA plans to operate it until it leaves the Kuiper Belt, expected in 2028 or 2029. ### What is the heart on Pluto? A bright region about 1,600 kilometres across, seen clearly for the first time in July 2015. Its western half, Sputnik Planitia, is a plain of nitrogen ice. Its smooth surface hints that Pluto may still be geologically active. ### Has New Horizons left the solar system? Not yet. It has passed every planet and Pluto, but it is still inside the Sun's bubble of solar wind. Voyager 1 crossed that edge at about 120 times Earth's distance from the Sun. ## Related - [Voyager 1](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/voyager-1.md) - [Voyager 2](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/voyager-2.md) A craft the size of a piano showed us a small, far world with a heart on it. What would you most like to see up close? ## Sources - James Webb Space Telescope's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, JWST geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-170'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - Juno's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: NASA's Juno Mission Captures Jupiter Moon Thebe](https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-juno-misson-captures-jupiter-moon-thebe/) - Neptune's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Neptune Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neptunefact.html) - New Horizons' closest distance to Arrokoth (Measured): [NASA: Arrokoth: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/arrokoth-2014-mu69/facts/) - New Horizons' closest distance to Pluto's surface (Measured): [Johns Hopkins APL: New Horizons: The Path to Pluto and Arrokoth](https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Path-to-Pluto/Mission-Timeline.php); [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/) - New Horizons' distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, New Horizons geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-98'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - New Horizons' distance from Earth at the Arrokoth flyby (Measured): [Johns Hopkins APL: New Horizons Successfully Explores Ultima Thule](https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/190101-new-horizons-successfully-explores-ultima-thule) - New Horizons' launch speed relative to Earth (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/) - New Horizons' mass at launch (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/); [Johns Hopkins APL: New Horizons: Questions and Answers](https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Questions-and-Answers.php) - New Horizons' speed relative to the Sun (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, New Horizons heliocentric vectors](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-98'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@10'&START_TIME='2026-10-22'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-23'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='2'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - The International Space Station's mean height above Earth (Measured): [NASA: International Space Station (reference)](https://www.nasa.gov/reference/international-space-station/) - Time for light from New Horizons to reach Earth at the Pluto flyby (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/) - Time New Horizons took to reach Pluto (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/) - Time since New Horizons flew past Arrokoth (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons Flyby: Where to Watch](https://science.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/new-horizons-flyby-where-to-watch/) - Time since New Horizons flew past Pluto (Measured): [NASA: NASA's Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter](https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-three-billion-mile-journey-to-pluto-reaches-historic-encounter/) - Time since New Horizons' launch (Measured): [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/); [Johns Hopkins APL: New Horizons: The Path to Pluto and Arrokoth](https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Path-to-Pluto/Mission-Timeline.php) - Voyager 1's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: Horizons API documentation](https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/horizons.html) - Voyager 1's distance from the Sun when it crossed the heliopause (Measured): [American Geophysical Union: Voyager Observations of the Heliospheric Interface (AGU Fall Meeting 2014 abstract)](https://studio.m-anage.com/agu/fm14/webprogram/Paper4456.html); [NASA: Voyager Interstellar Mission](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/interstellar-mission/) - Voyager 2's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, Voyager 2 geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-32'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - Width of Pluto's heart-shaped bright region (Estimated): [NASA: Pluto's Big Heart in Color (PIA19708)](https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/plutos-big-heart-in-color/); [NASA: New Horizons](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/)