Pluto Close-Up: Spacecraft Makes Flyby of Icy, Mystery World

We’ve made it to Pluto by NASA’s calculations, the last stop on a planetary tour of the solar system a half-century in the making.

The image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 13, 2015. NASA/APL/SwRI via Getty Images

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—By NASA’s calculations, we’ve made it to Pluto, the last stop on a planetary tour of the solar system a half-century in the making.

The moment of closest approach for the New Horizons spacecraft came at 7:49 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 14, culminating a journey from planet Earth that spanned an incredible 3 billion miles and 9 1/2 years.

Based on everything NASA knows, New Horizons was straight on course for the historic encounter, sweeping within 7,800 miles of Pluto at 31,000 mph. But official confirmation should come Tuesday night, 13 nerve-racking hours later. That’s because NASA wants New Horizons taking pictures of Pluto, its jumbo moon Charon, and its four little moons during this critical time, not gabbing to Earth.

NASA marked the moment live on TV, broadcasting from flight operations in Maryland.

“This is truly a hallmark in human history,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s science mission chief.

The New Horizons science team cheers after seeing the spacecraft's last and sharpest image of Pluto at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP