Video: Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager, previews Ultima Thule flyby (members only)

The twin spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, left Rocket Lab’s Long Beach facilities on Thursday to begin the trip to Florida. The EscaPADE mission will launch aboard Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket.

NASA’s New Horizons probe, armored for a nine-year journey through the cold, inhospitable depths of space, launched in January 2006 from Cape Canaveral, and all systems are go for a flyby of Pluto Tuesday. See photos of the spacecraft before it was packaged for launch on an Atlas 5 rocket.

Calling on the Atlas 5 rocket to flex its muscles one more time, Orbital ATK will partner with United Launch Alliance once again to send a massive load of supplies to the International Space Station astronauts early next year.