Of the nine planets circling our Sun, Pluto is the most mysterious. Travelling on the outskirts of the Solar System in an highly eccentric orbit (At times it is closer than Neptune, e.g. from January 1979 thru February 11 1999:))), it takes about 248 years to travel around the Sun! It is the only planet not yet visited by a spacecraft. But hopefully, that is about to change, as the first spacecraft designed to study Pluto, took the first steps on a long journey today when it was shipped from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory - where it was designed and built - to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, for its next round of pre-launch tests.

Artist's Concept of the New Horizons (Courtesy: PhysOrg)Tentatively named New Horizons, the spacecraft is scheduled for a launch in 2006, and it should reach Pluto and its moon Charon by 2015. s part of an extended mission, the spacecraft could also head farther into the Kuiper Belt to examine one or two of the ancient, icy mini-worlds in the vast region at least a billion miles beyond Neptune’s orbit:D:D.
Over the next three months at Goddard the mission team will check New Horizons’ balance and alignment in a series of spin tests; put it before wall-sized speakers that simulate the noise-induced vibrations of launch; and seal it in a four-story thermal-vacuum chamber that duplicates the extreme hot, cold and airless conditions of space. This fall, New Horizons will be transported to Kennedy Space Center for final launch preparations.
Hey Pluto! Here we come:D:D:D.