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New Horizons Spacecraft

New Horizons is the active radioisotope-powered outer-solar-system spacecraft designed, built, and operated by Johns Hopkins APL for NASA. It completed the first close flybys of Pluto and Arrokoth and continues remote Kuiper Belt and heliophysics observations beyond 60 astronomical units. NASA's press kit lists a 478 kg launch weight including 77 kg of hydrazine and a 2.2 m spacecraft height measured from the payload attachment fitting to the top of the antenna-dish stack; primary-structure and antenna dimensions remain qualified subsystem measurements. The existing integrated hydrazine configuration records sixteen spacecraft thrusters, including trajectory-correction and pointing/spin functions.

New Horizons Spacecraft
NASA / NASA Kennedy Space Center · NASA-hosted asset; the exact NASA image article direct asset is pixel-identical to this stored 1041×692 photograph of technicians preparing the New Horizons spacecraft in NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, and the article credits NASA. NASA’s current Images and Media Usage Guidelines generally permit factual or informational/editorial use with NASA attribution and without implying NASA endorsement. The image includes identifiable personnel and a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory context or other third-party material; commercial, promotional, merchandise, or other uses involving people, logos, or protected third-party rights may require separate clearance; verify before such use. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
New Horizons probeNew Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt spacecraft
Family Name
New Horizons
Full Name
New Horizons Spacecraft
Roles
interplanetary_probeflybyresearch
Status
active
Type
spacecraft

Details

Description
New Horizons is the active radioisotope-powered outer-solar-system spacecraft designed, built, and operated by Johns Hopkins APL for NASA. It completed the first close flybys of Pluto and Arrokoth and continues remote Kuiper Belt and heliophysics observations beyond 60 astronomical units. NASA's press kit lists a 478 kg launch weight including 77 kg of hydrazine and a 2.2 m spacecraft height measured from the payload attachment fitting to the top of the antenna-dish stack; primary-structure and antenna dimensions remain qualified subsystem measurements. The existing integrated hydrazine configuration records sixteen spacecraft thrusters, including trajectory-correction and pointing/spin functions.
Dimensions
Height
…
First Flight Year
2,006
Manufacturer
Operator
Propulsion Configurations
  • Entries
    • Count
      1
      Placement
      spacecraft
      Propulsion System
      Role
      maneuvering
      Stage
      spacecraft
      Variant Notes
      One New Horizons blowdown hydrazine subsystem with 16 thrusters mounted across eight spacecraft locations: four 4.4-N trajectory-correction units and twelve 0.8-N pointing/spin units, split into primary and redundant sets; no individual thruster model is inferred.
    Name
    New Horizons hydrazine propulsion configuration
    Notes
    Models one exact integrated spacecraft subsystem. The source-backed 16-thruster architecture, eight mounting locations, 4.4-N/0.8-N split, and primary/redundant arrangement are retained in notes; individual Aerojet model suffixes are not inferred.
Spacecraft Specs
Launch Mass
…
Reusability
expendable

Links

Official Url
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 14, 2026 at 21:59:57 UTC
Updated Time
September 8, 2026 at 00:06:56 UTC
Image
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