Extreme Exploration and Outreach: Taking the World on a Voyage to Pluto and Arrokoth

Abstract

New Horizons’ historic flyby of Pluto in July 2015 generated headlines worldwide and set records for both the farthest planet ever explored and, arguably, the largest public engagement of any NASA science mission in history. From live road shows and innovative social media campaigns to documentaries and live television broadcasts, the mission brought the public along on this great voyage of exploration. The engagement and communications program began long before the spacecraft was even launched, and it had to include plans to generate awareness and maintain excitement through a decade-long cruise to Pluto. The excitement and outreach continued as New Horizons achieved another historic flyby—of the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 (since named Arrokoth) on January 1, 2019. As more records fell—this time, for the farthest world ever explored, more than 6.5 billion kilometers from Earth—the team applied its best practices and lessons learned from the Pluto flyby.