Which spacecraft made the first flyby of Pluto in 2015?

New Horizons made the first flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015. The NASA spacecraft passed about 12,500 kilometres above Pluto’s surface and returned the first close images of the dwarf planet.

New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006, from Cape Canaveral. It used a gravity assist from Jupiter in 2007, which increased its speed and provided an opportunity for scientific observations of the giant planet and its moons.

The Pluto encounter revealed mountains of water ice, broad nitrogen-ice plains and a large heart-shaped region later called Tombaugh Regio. New Horizons then continued into the Kuiper Belt.

Voyager 2 visited the outer planets Uranus and Neptune, but neither Voyager spacecraft flew past Pluto. New Horizons remains the only spacecraft to visit Pluto closely.