New Horizons Encounters 2014 MU69, illustration - Stockillustratie

New Horizons probe passing 2014 MU69, illustration. In 2015, the NASA probe New Horizons famously arrived at Pluto after a decade-long flight. But its mission is not over. On 28 August 2015, scientists chose the Kuiper-Belt Object 2014 MU69 as the next flyby target. After four course corrections, the probe is due to arrive on 1 January 2019. It will be the first ever encounter of a robotic probe with a classical Kuiper-Belt Object. The object 2014 MU69 is far smaller than Pluto. An irregularly shaped world just 45 km across, it orbits the Sun once in 295 years.