An unmanned NASA spacecraft whizzed by Pluto on Tuesday, making its closest approach in the climax of a decade-long journey to explore the dwarf planet for the first time, the US space agency said. Moving faster than any spacecraft ever built at a speed of about 30,800 miles per hour (50,000 kph), the nuclear-powered New Horizons - about the size of a baby grand piano - snapped pictures of Pluto as it hurtled by on auto-pilot.
The photos will reveal details of Pluto never seen before in the history of space travel. "The New Horizons spacecraft passes its closest approach mark at Pluto after a three-billion-mile journey," a NASA commentator said as spectators waved flags in a crowded room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Center outside the US capital Washington.
The spacecraft was a bit closer to Pluto's surface than initially planned, 7,750 miles - or about the distance from New York to Mumbai, India - and may have been one minute earlier than the 1149 GMT target time, the US space agency said. "I have to pinch myself. Look what we accomplished," mission operations manager Alice Bowman said.
"It is truly amazing that humankind can go out and explore these worlds. And to see Pluto be revealed just before our eyes - it is just fantastic." New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern described what he called "a moment of celebration," with the promise of a "16-month data waterfall" ahead that will help scientists write whole new textbooks about Pluto. "We have completed the initial reconnaissance of the solar system, an endeavour started under President (John F.) Kennedy more than 50 years ago, continuing today under President (Barack) Obama," Stern told reporters. - 'Hallmark in human history'.
Never before has a spacecraft ventured into the Kuiper Belt, and New Horizons has been on its way there for more than nine years. The spacecraft launched in 2006, the same year that Pluto was downgraded to "dwarf planet" status due to the celestial body's small size.