Pluto mission of discovery blasts off

An unmanned NASA spacecraft the size and shape of a concert piano hurtled yesterday toward Pluto on a three-billion-mile journey to the solar system’s last unexplored planet – a voyage so long that some of the scientists who will be celebrating its arrival are just taking their first physics class.

The New Horizons spacecraft blasted off aboard an Atlas V rocket in a spectacular start to the 700-million-dollar mission. Though it is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, capable of reaching 36,000 mph, it will take nine years to reach Pluto and the frozen, sunless reaches of the solar system.