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| ... | |||
| Pioneer 11 | late 1996 | Its transmitter fell silent altogether |
| ... | |||
| Pioneer 10 | 2003(01/23) | The final, very weak signal was received when it was 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth |
| ... | |||
| New Horizons | 2014(08/24) | The probe will pass Neptune's orbit |
| Feb 2015 | Observations of Pluto begin | ||
| 2015(05/05) | Images exceed best Hubble Space Telescope resolution | ||
| 2015(07/14) | Flyby of Pluto around 11:47 UTC at 13,695 km, 13.78 km/s. Flyby of Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx around 12:01 UTC at 29,473 km, 13.87 km/s | ||
| Voyager 2 | 2015 approx | Termination of gyroscopic operations |
| Voyager 1 | 2015 | Termination of Data Tape Recorder (DTR) operations (limited by ability to capture 1.4 kbit/s data using a 70 m/34 m antenna array. This is the minimum rate at which the DTS can read-out data.) |
| New Horizons third stage | late 2015 | Crosses Pluto's orbit |
| Voyager 1 | 2016 approx | Termination of gyroscopic operations |
| New Horizons | 2016–2020 | Possible flyby of one or more Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) |
| Voyager 2 | 2020 approx | Initiate instrument power sharing |
| Voyager 1 | 2020 | Start shutdown of science instruments (as of October 18, 2010 the order is undecided but the Low-Energy Charged Particles, Cosmic Ray Subsystem, Magnetometer, and Plasma Wave Subsystem instruments are expected to still be operating) |
| Voyager 2 | 2025 or slightly afterwards | Can no longer power any single instrument |
| Voyager 1 | 2025-2030 | Can no longer power any single instrument |
| New Horizons | 2026 | The Dwarf Planets mission will conclude |
| 2038(12) | New Horizons will be 100 AU from the Sun/If still functioning, the probe will explore the outer heliosphere. |
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