In [_Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth_](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up), Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation.

> “New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.”

I love that engineers can store a program on a spacecraft, let it sleep in deep space, and trust it to wake itself up later for more science.

New Horizons launched in 2006. Twenty years later, it is nearly six billion miles from Earth, still collecting data and following instructions written long after its original mission to Pluto was completed.

Now it is finding more dust than scientists expected beyond the known edge of the Kuiper Belt. That could mean the belt extends much farther than we thought, or that there is another population of objects waiting to be discovered.

I am curious what else this little machine might find before it finally goes quiet.

Read Ashley Strickland’s full article, [_Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth_](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up).

In <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up">Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth</a>, Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation.
<blockquote>
“New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.”
</blockquote>
I love that engineers can store a program on a spacecraft, let it sleep in deep space, and trust it to wake itself up later for more science.
New Horizons launched in 2006. Twenty years later, it is nearly six billion miles from Earth, still collecting data and following instructions written long after its original mission to Pluto was completed.
Now it is finding more dust than scientists expected beyond the known edge of the Kuiper Belt. That could mean the belt extends much farther than we thought, or that there is another population of objects waiting to be discovered.
I am curious what else this little machine might find before it finally goes quiet.
Read Ashley Strickland’s full article, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up">Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth</a>.

In [_Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth_](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up), Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation.

_Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth_

Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth

, Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation.

“New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.”

I love that engineers can store a program on a spacecraft, let it sleep in deep space, and trust it to wake itself up later for more science.

New Horizons launched in 2006. Twenty years later, it is nearly six billion miles from Earth, still collecting data and following instructions written long after its original mission to Pluto was completed.

Now it is finding more dust than scientists expected beyond the known edge of the Kuiper Belt. That could mean the belt extends much farther than we thought, or that there is another population of objects waiting to be discovered.

I am curious what else this little machine might find before it finally goes quiet.

Read Ashley Strickland’s full article, [_Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth_](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up).

Read Ashley Strickland’s full article, 

Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation nearly six billion miles from Earth. Twenty years after launch, it still runs stored commands and finds more dust than expected past the Kuiper Belt.