Boulder, CO - A spacecraft on a nine-year cruise to Pluto has spent its first 100 days getting warmed up for the scientific mission ahead. 
 
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft launched from Earth on January 19, 2006. On April 7, sailing along at 111,960 kilometres per hour, it passed the orbit of Mars – the first planet to pass on its way to Pluto. By May 7, it will be twice as far from the Sun as is the Earth.