New Horizons navigates deep space using stars

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully demonstrated deep space stellar navigation, a first for space exploration, while in the Kuiper Belt. This achievement marks a significant step in advanced navigation techniques. Astronomers used New Horizons, 438 million miles from Earth, to image nearby stars Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359. By observing stellar parallax, the team calculated the spacecraft's position with an accuracy of about 4.1 million miles. The experiment, described in The Astronomical Journal, proved the concept of stellar parallax. New Horizons, having studied Pluto, is now in its extended mission, continuing to explore the heliosphere and interstellar space.