New close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator were released by NASA on Wednesday, July 15. Its New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and traveled 3 billion miles to the dwarf planet. It's the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and its moons. The mission completes the reconnaissance of the classical solar system, and it makes the United States the first nation to send a space probe to every planet from Mercury to Pluto.