It took nine years for the New Horizons spacecraft to reach Pluto. That meant, I would not be able to start creating these two explanatory graphics until at least two weeks before the spaceraft was set to accomplish its mission — explore Pluto in a flyby.

It was rare for me to create two infographics on the same story to be published in the same day. Typically, I only created one. If it was two, they would typically run on separate days. These two graphics ran on the same day. Whether it was one or two, I always had two main questions to answer on complex graphics like these: Why was the event, product, or process important?. How was it done?

Humans, by nature, are curious. Explorers. The exploration of space, though not always popular, has always been a facinating endeavor. The “Why” graphic documented the first mission we ever undertook to explore our moon and the planets in our solar system. Most readers, including myself, didn’t realize humans have been exploring our solar system for almost 60 years. Exploring Pluto was simply a continuation of our space journey.

The “How” graphic explains, in a simple manner, how scientists reached Pluto and what were the scientific missions to flying by in the first place.

By creating both print graphics, I created all of the visual assets needed to create an interactive.