Cloudy skies led to minor delays but could not stop the launch with the compact car sized spacecraft packed with scientific instruments heading into the skies as planned.
Decade long trip
It will take the New Horizons spacecraft up to 10 years to reach Pluto, traveling at unparalleled speeds of up to 75,000 kilometers an hour.
Had NASA failed to launch New Horizons by January 27, its trip to Pluto would have taken several more years.
New Horizon’s launch timetable was built around a unique planetary alignment that would enable the gravitational force of Jupiter to sling the probe outward at accelerated speeds, cutting about 30 months off the trip.
The probe was set to attain its record breaking speed of 15,000 kilometres after completing separation from the rocket that launched it, just 42 minutes after jetting off.
Nine hours after liftoff, New Horizons will pass by the moon – a very quick journey when compared to the Apollo astronauts, who took three days to reach the moon.
Thanks to the launch occurring as planned, the craft is scheduled to approach Pluto between July 2015 and July 2017.
Scientists said the mission had to be carried out before 2020 because, after that date, Pluto, which has a lopsided, non-circular 248-year orbit, will be too far from the sun and its atmosphere will be frozen.
Once it gets there, it will take an estimated four hours and 25 minutes for its radio-transmitted data to reach Earth.
Secrets revealed
Distant Pluto is the only one of the nine planets that has not been explored by a space probe.
"This mission is going somewhere no mission has gone before. This is the frontier of planetary science," said mission scientist Hal Weaver.
It remains a mystery 75 years after its discovery, when it was named for the Roman god of the underworld at the suggestion of a young British girl who liked to read ancient mythology.
"What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," said Colleen Hartman, deputy associate administrator for NASA.
The craft will explore Pluto and its large moon Charon before continuing on a trajectory away from the sun.
It will then spend five more years probing the icy and rocky bodies of the Kuiper Belt, which some astronomers believe Pluto belongs to.
Scientists hope the ambitious journey will help them better understand the origins of Earth and the other planets some 4.5 billion years ago.