 The New Horizons probe , en route to Pluto , flew by Jupiter for a gravity assist and was the first probe launched directly towards Jupiter since the Ulysses in 1990 . Its Long Range Reconnaissance <unk> ( <unk> ) took its first photographs of Jupiter on September 4 , 2006 . The spacecraft began further study of the Jovian system in December 2006 , and made its closest approach on February 28 , 2007 . 
