NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched nearly nine years ago, and aims to gather information as it flies by Pluto, will be coming out of "hibernation" on December 6.

The $650 million unmanned spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. 19, 2006. The main purpose of the mission was to gather data and information while the spacecraft flies by Pluto in a six-month long process, and will then move on to study certain objects in the Kuiper Belt.

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Although New Horizons will reportedly begin conducting its studies and gathering data on Jan. 15, NASA will be taking the spacecraft out of hibernation in December for a month-long process in preparation of the flyby. 

Hibernation is a technique used by NASA in an effort to conserve the spacecraft's resources while it's traveling through the solar system. Basically everything electronic is shut down during hibernation except for monitors and a transmission for weekly status updates.

Once woken up, New Horizons will then send a confirmation back to Earth. But because the spacecraft is currently about 2.9 billion miles away, NASA won't be able to receive the transmission until about four and half hours later.

The nuclear-powered spacecraft is equipped with advanced instruments including compact multicolor and high-resolution telescopic cameras, as well as ultraviolet and two-particle spectrometers, according to Gizmag. New Horizon's will be using these instruments during the flyby when studying multiple aspects of Pluto including its structure, climate and its moons.

The timing for the mission was chosen for a specific reason; NASA wants to capitalize on the opportunity to study all aspects of Pluto during its "late summer" period, as the dwarf planet will soon begin to freeze over as it endures another 100-year long winter.

The mission will be ongoing for six months after Jan. 15, but the spacecraft will record so much data that NASA won't even be able to receive transmissions and analyze it all until October 2016, Gimag reports. 

TagsNASA, New Horizons Spacefraft, Pluto, Huiper Belt, space exploration, Hibernation