The New Horizons probe successfully lifted off from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 19:00 GMT, 19th January, 2006.
The next planetary pit stop will be a slingshot manoeuvre at Jupiter in February 2007. The planet's massive gravity should accelerate New Horizons an additional 14,483 kph to a blistering, 21 kilometres per second, which will enable it to reach Pluto, five years earlier than otherwise, on July 2015.
T plus 17 minutes The Centaur main engine will cut off and the vehicle will coast about 22 minutes in an elliptical parking orbit. The Centaur will then ignite a second time, burning nearly 10 minutes before separating from the mission-unique third stage that includes a Star-48B kick motor and the New Horizons Observatory. The observatory is due to separate at a mission elapsed time of 47:47 minutes, heading off toward Pluto at a speed of approximately 10 miles per second.
Spacecraft Separation: Approximately 48 minutes after liftoff