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Atlas V Pluto New Horizons

Atlas V launches New Horizons, first mission to Pluto

1/19/06 ~ 2:00 p.m.

The Atlas V rocket, flying for the first time in its most powerful configuration, a 551 with five solid rocket boosters and the large, bulbous
five-meter diameter payload fairing, lifts off on January 19, 2006, with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. New Horizons became the first spacecraft in history to visit Pluto on July 14, 2015, giving us the first view of the only one of the "classic nine" planets not yet explored. The three-stage Atlas sent New Horizons on the fastest departure from Earth for any spacecraft in history, but it took an incredible 9.5 years for it to reach distant Pluto.

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