NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is four weeks away from its flyby of Pluto, with just 20 million miles to go. This diagram shows the current position of New Horizons, along with its path so far (in green) and the road ahead (in red). 
 
 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is less than one month away from its flyby of Pluto and in great shape for what promises to be a truly epic encounter with the dwarf planet. 
 
 New Horizons, the first spacecraft ever sent to investigate Pluto, has been traveling for nine long years and has just 20 million miles (32 million kilometers) to go before it makes a historic flyby of the dwarf planet. During its close encounter with Pluto, New Horizons will fly within 7,750 miles (12,500 km) of the dwarf planet and capture the first-ever close-up views of the icy world. [See the latest photos of Pluto from New Horizons] 
 
 "This is getting really exciting," Cathy Olkin, New Horizons' deputy project scientist, said in a video update today (June 16). 
 
 New Horizons has been tracking Pluto with its instruments and snapping ever-sharper views of the dwarf planet. Last week, NASA unveiled images of the four "faces of Pluto" — views of the different surface features on the dwarf planet as it rotated over the course of four days. 
 
 These images of Pluto from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft show views of the dwarf planet as it rotates, revealing details about the dimensions of its dark surface patches. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute 
 
 "We've always known Pluto had dark areas, but now, we're starting to see how large they are, where they're exactly located, what shape they take — and it's very fascinating to see this level of detail," Olkin said. 
 
 This week, New Horizons will begin taking infrared photographs of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, to help map their surface geology and temperature. The probe will also begin taking daily color images that record Pluto's full rotational phase. It will also continue taking measurements with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, nicknamed LORRI. 
 
 New Horizons' Pluto flyby will also mark the first time a spacecraft has explored the icy Kuiper Belt, where Pluto resides, and the probe's mission won't stop once it zips by Pluto. 
 
 Chris Hersman, a New Horizons mission systems engineer, said that if the probe's power supply remains healthy, its mission could continue through the outer edge of the solar system for quite some time. 
 
 "There are a lot of interesting interactions between the heliosphere and what's beyond that, so we'd like to get there — and it looks like we can make it until the mid-2030s at least," Hersman said. (The heliosphere is the magnetic bubble containing our solar system, solar wind and the entire solar magnetic field.) 
 
 NASA's New Horizons mission update today was the first in a series of weekly updates — held each Tuesday this month — leading up to the Pluto flyby on July 14. Starting July 7, NASA and the New Horizons team will begin providing daily updates on the mission's progress. 
 
 To see NASA's complete schedule of New Horizons updates leading up to the Pluto flyby, visit: 
 
 http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-television-coverage-media-activities-for-pluto-flyby. 
 
 Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. ||||| NASA/JPL-Caltech If all went according to plan, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made history Tuesday morning after snagging the world's first close-up look at Pluto. 
 
 But completing the Solar System's planetary family portrait is just a small part of the spacecraft's journey — it's already explored Jupiter and is now destined to probe a mysterious zone of icy objects called the Kuiper Belt. 
 
 In fact, mission leader and planetary scientist Alan Stern says New Horizons may have decades' worth of exploration left in it, thanks to its long-lived nuclear power source. 
 
 Pre-Pluto homework 
 
 Before its personal rendezvous with Pluto, New Horizons swung by Jupiter for a gravitational speed boost. This shaved almost 4 years off its travel time, to a total of 9 1/2 years. 
 
 New Horizons did a little science while it was in the Jovian neighborhood, too. For example, its cameras caught the Tvashtar volcano exploding on Jupiter's third-largest moon, Io. It also made about 700 other observations, giving New Horizons the opportunity to test its suite of seven scientific instruments. 
 
 Now, about 8 years later, New Horizons is completing what's arguably the most popular leg of its trip — zooming past Pluto and its moons, of which there are at least five. 
 
 A first look at the icy dwarf planet 
 
 The busiest part of New Horizon's flyby past Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, began about 12 hours before its closest approach, and is slated to last about 12 hours afterward. 
 
 New Horizons passed within 7,600 miles of Pluto's surface for about 30 minutes. During that time it took what will be the best-ever pictures of Pluto, which should resolve surface features as small as 80 feet across. 
 
 But the flyby wasn't just about taking breathtaking close-ups. Scientific instruments also recorded ultraviolet emissions emanating from Pluto's atmosphere — measurements that will help assemble the best maps of Pluto and Charon we may see in our lifetimes. Other devices on New Horizons studied the composition of the dwarf planet's crust, measured variations in its surface temperatures, sifted for space dust, and snapped images of Pluto's moons. 
 
 New Horizons photo of Pluto. Monica Manalo 
 
 After the spacecraft passed by, it turned around to examine Pluto and Charon's dark sides. That's the best way to detect atmospheric haze, search for rings of debris, and identify whether their surfaces are smooth or rough. 
 
 New Horizons also got a good look at Earth and the Sun as they set and rose through Pluto's atmosphere. While this happened, the spacecraft scanned for radio waves from Earth-based transmitters to profile the composition, structure, and temperature profile of Pluto's atmosphere in incredible detail. 
 
 Next stop, the Kuiper Belt... 
 
 An artist's concept of a Kuiper Belt Object. NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) If all went well with the planned flyby, New Horizons will soon begin the next major leg of its journey: chasing down a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) that measures at least 30 miles in diameter. 
 
 New Horizons has at least three KBOs it can reach, given it's current path through space and limited on-board fuel supply. Their names aren't very exciting: PT1, PT2, and PT3 (where PT means "potential target"). 
 
 Sometime this August, according to SpaceflightNow.com, NASA will pick the KBO it likes the most, then fire New Horizons's thrusters to steer it in that direction. The trip will take at least 2 years. 
 
 New Horizons might be able to study more than one KBO. And each time it does, the spacecraft will scrutinize the icy object in the same way it did Pluto and Charon: map the surface, measure temperatures, scout for moons, and search for traces of atmosphere. 
 
 ...And beyond 
 
 After scrutinizing a KBO or two, New Horizons will escape the sun's influence and never again return to our Solar System. 
 
 "It could go for another 20 years," Stern said during a NASA press conference on Tuesday. Around that time, the nuclear power source on board New Horizons will become too weak to supply energy for taking measurements and communicating with Earth. 
 
 This all assumes, of course, that we don't lose the spacecraft anywhere along the way. 
 
 The flyby was the riskiest part of the mission, and its success is still uncertain; right now, there's still a 1-in-10,000 chance debris around Pluto thwarted the mission. We'll have to wait until Tuesday night before NASA can say whether or not the maneuver went off without a hitch. 
 
 Yet during Tuesday morning's press briefing, Stern seemed upbeat. He noted that you could fly hundreds of New Horizons and they'd likely all survive. 
 
 One way or another, the mission has already made history. Whether in one piece or a shower of spacecraft parts, we've reached the last unexplored world in our Solar System. And that's something not even the International Astronomical Union can take away. ||||| NASA scientists are now getting even more dramatic images of Pluto and its moons Charon and Hydra from their New Horizons spacecraft. USA TODAY 
 
 Artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft during its planned encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon. (Photo: None, Johns Hopkins University Applied) 
 
 Flying by Pluto was the goal, but the New Horizons spacecraft isn't stopping anytime soon — or at least that's what the team of scientists and engineers hopes. 
 
 After a nearly 10 year journey, the New Horizons spacecraft snapped unprecedented photos of the dwarf planet and collected data to send back to Earth. For the next few weeks, the spacecraft will continue to take photos of Pluto to capture different angles. 
 
 The majority of the time, however, the spacecraft will be sending back data and images to Earth, a process that will take about 16 months to complete. 
 
 With scientists saying all signs point to the spacecraft being in full health, the team has its sights set on further discoveries. 
 
 Alan Stern, the principal investigator of New Horizons, said the spacecraft has enough power to keep going until the mid-2030s. By that point, it will be roughly 9.3 billion miles from the sun, he said. 
 
 "We have a chance to go further and explore the deep reaches of the heliosphere, like Voyager did, and to do that with much more modern instruments," Stern said, "and hopefully return data that will really add to the storehouse of what we know about our environment in the solar system. 
 
 Around the end of October, the spacecraft will change its course toward one of two targets. The unnamed targets, which scientists have spent a lot of time searching for, are located in the Kuiper Belt - a region of the solar system beyond the known planets. 
 
 "It was much harder than they expected because the direction we're going just happens to be cluttered with all the stars of the Milky Way, which makes it harder to find these Kuiper Belt objects," said Chris Hersman, New Horizons' mission systems engineer 
 
 He said the objects could give scientists a better idea of how planets form. 
 
 "As the planets get formed and they're closer to the sun, the sun alters their makeup," Hersman said. 
 
 The spacecraft will not reach the objects until after 2017. 
 
 The future of the New Horizons mission, though, heavily depends on NASA funding. John Grunsfeld, NASA's science mission chief, dodged the question about funding for the spacecraft at a Tuesday news conference. Grunsfeld will have a big say in whether to fund the mission moving forward. 
 
 Hersman, however, is confident once the data from the Pluto Flyby arrives, the funding will be more likely. For now, though, the team is still enjoying the spotlight. 
 
 "For nine and a half years, we're in hibernation, we kind of fly under the radar and suddenly, all eyes are on us and it's a little overwhelming, but I really appreciate the support," Hersman said. 
 
 Traci Watson contributed to this report 
 
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– NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is all set for what Space.com predicts will be a "truly epic encounter" with Pluto next month. The first spacecraft ever sent to the dwarf planet, New Horizons is now about 20 million miles away—and 2.9 billion miles from Earth, reports Astronomy—but will get within 7,750 miles of the planet on July 14. During the flyby, it is expected to capture the most detailed views of Pluto ever, before exploring the outer edge of our solar system—if its power supply allows. "There are a lot of interesting interactions between the heliosphere"—the magnetic bubble around our solar system—"and what's beyond that, so we'd like to get there, and it looks like we can make it until the mid-2030s at least," an engineer says. Since providing the first color photo of Pluto in April, the spacecraft has also captured images of all four of the planet's "faces" from 30 million miles away, using its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager. Already, researchers say they're able to make out a "complex and nuanced surface." "We've always known Pluto had dark areas, but now, we're starting to see how large they are, where they're exactly located, what shape they take—and it's very fascinating to see this level of detail," a scientist says. "This is getting really exciting." In the coming days, the spacecraft will snap infrared photographs of both Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, to map surface geology and temperature. Can't wait for the flyby? Appease yourself with this trailer, per the Verge.