New Horizon

Starting the new year is probably as good a time as any to note that deep space missions that take years to complete are often forgotten by everyone except those directly involved until the probe, seemingly magically, is at its destination, sending back extraordinary images.

So it probably is with NASA's New Horizon mission. That probe is now flying between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune, traveling 750,000 miles a day-- more than three times the Earth-Moon distance. It is the fastest probe yet launched by NASA.

Even with all that speed, New Horizon is still only halfway to its target investigation area-- the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the Solar System. Of course, by far the most famous Kuiper Belt object is the demoted planet, Pluto. The flyby of Pluto is scheduled for July 14, 2015.