New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune

Artist's concept of NASA's New Horizons probe flying past the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14, 2015. 

New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune on Aug. 25, 2014, 25 years to the day after NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by the distant blue planet.

Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

A speedy NASA probe has crossed the orbit of Neptune, notching one more spaceflight milestone on its way toward a historic flyby of Pluto next summer.

New Horizons, which is scheduled to zoom through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, passed Neptune's orbit today (Aug. 25), 25 years to the day after NASA's Voyager 2 probe executed the first-ever flyby of faraway Neptune and its icy moon Triton.

New Horizons team members took the opportunity provided by this spaceflight coincidence to pay tribute to Voyager 2, the only probe ever to visit the "ice giant" planets Uranus and Neptune.