And now with calculations, using
(1) a = semi-major axis from the SSD Horizons system (date set for today, reference set to solar barycenter)
and using
(2) v_infinity = square root of ( G * M_sun / |a|) [as per Greg's reference]

I get:

16.6 km/s - Voyager 1
14.9 km/s - Voyager 2
12.5 km/s - New Horizons
11.3 km/s - Pioneer 10
10.4 km/s - Pioneer 11
I wonder what Ulysses might have after that rumored Jupiter flyby in 2099 ...

Sort of tallies with the values I quoted in my earlier post. Warning though ... I dont do these sorts of calculations for a living, so I may have missed something along the way

Without doing calculations, just checking the internet, I found the following speeds at infinity:

16.62 km/s Voyager 1 (Source)
13.** km/s New Horizons (Same source)
The New Horizons figures of course still depend on future trajectory correction maneuvers etc

Gut feeling (how scientific) tells me that Voyager 2 is somewhat slower than Voyager 1, and the Pioneers behind New Horizons

I found the following source about the upper stage motor. It's actually ahead of NH since the first NH TCM slowed it down a little, at least up to Jupiter, but there received less "kick" than the spacecraft did, so that NH will catch-up and overtake its engine (in a way)

Jupiter Flyby:
NH on 28-FEB-2007 05:41:23 UTC at 2,305,447 km
Upper stage on 28-FEB-2007 01:44:19 UTC at 2,819,811 km
thus 4 hours earlier and 500,000 km farther out

Pluto Flyby:
NH on 14-JUL-2015 11:58:00 UTC at 11,095 km (old schedule)
Upper stage on 09-OCT-2015 22:42:27 UTC at 187,044,046 km
V-infinity: NH 13.77 km/s, upper stage 13.33 km/s

Atanas, the following web-page and graph would give you an impression on how the 5 solar system leaving crafts are faring, distance over time, but doesnt give speed. Anyway, what you'd want to know is speed at infinity (from the Sun), i.e. the speed the probes will have when the Sun has no more gravitational influence on them.

I recall reading somewhere (sorry memory lapse, cant recall where that was) that the search for KBOs will be focused to take place nearer to the Pluto encounter, because by then the KBO that could be reached would well be in a very small area of the sky around & beyond Pluto, guess near the 1 degree cone mentioned in an earlier post, since they move very slow as well.

Any trajectory adjustment will likely be using engine firing. Of the 3 criteria for a swing-by that I know of (orbital speed, mass and density), Pluto fares extremely bad in the first two.

I can offer the following, need to do more research to verify timezones and SCET/ERT:

The Overtaking:
19 Dec 1977 Voyager 1 overtakes Voyager 2

Voyager 1
05 Mar 1979 (06:54) Amalthea: Amalthea flyby (distant)
05 Mar 1979 (12:05) Jupiter: Jupiter Fly-By
05 Mar 1979 (15:14) Io: Io flyby
05 Mar 1979 (18:19) Europa: Europa flyby (distant)
06 Mar 1979 (02:15) Ganymede: Ganymede flyby
06 Mar 1979 (17:08) Callisto: Callisto flyby

12 Nov 1980 (05:41) Titan: Titan flyby (targetted)
12 Nov 1980 (22:17) Tethys: Tethys flyby (distant)
12 Nov 1980 (23:46) Saturn: Saturn Fly-By
13 Nov 1980 (01:43) Mimas: Mimas flyby
13 Nov 1980 (01:51) Enceladus: Enceladus flyby (distant)
13 Nov 1980 (03:39) Dione: Dione flyby (distant)
13 Nov 1980 (06:22) Rhea: Rhea flyby
13 Nov 1980 (16:45) Hyperion: Hyperion flyby (distant)

17 Feb 1998 Voyager 1 overtakes Pioneer 10 and becomes most distant spacecraft from the sun
by 2028 Reaches Heliopause
in 40,000 years Passes Star AC+79 3888 (at distance of 1.6 light-years)

Voyager 2
08 Jul 1979 (12:21) 214,930 km Callisto: Callisto flyby (distant)
09 Jul 1979 (07:14) 62,130 km Ganymede: Ganymede flyby
09 Jul 1979 (17:53) 205,720 km Europa: Europa flyby (distant)
09 Jul 1979 (20:01) 558,370 km Amalthea: Amalthea flyby (distant)
09 Jul 1979 (22:29) 721,883 km Jupiter: Jupiter
09 Jul 1979 (23:17) 1,129,900 km Io: Io flyby (distant)

25 Aug 1981 (09:24) 665,960 km Titan: Titan flyby (distant)
26 Aug 1981 (01:04) 502,250 km Dione: Dione flyby (distant)
26 Aug 1981 (02:34) 309,990 km Mimas: Mimas flyby (distant)
26 Aug 1981 (03:24) 161,081 km Saturn: Saturn
26 Aug 1981 (03:45) 87,140 km Enceladus: Enceladus flyby
26 Aug 1981 (06:12) 93,000 km Tethys: Tethys flyby
26 Aug 1981 (06:29) 645,280 km Rhea: Rhea flyby (distant)

24 Jan 1986 (17:59) 107,092 km Uranus: Uranus

14 Feb 1986 2.5 hrs trajectory correction maneuvre targets Voyager 2 towards Neptune
25 Aug 1989 39,800 km Triton: Triton
25 Aug 1989 (03:56) 29,216 km Neptune: Neptune

by 2008 Termination shock area
by 2028 Reaches Heliopause
in 296,000 years Passes Sirius (at a distance of 4.3 lightyears )

I can offer the following chronology ... not mind-boggling, but at least something (apologies for the layout):

Pioneer 10
03 Mar 1972 (01:49) Launch
15 Jul 1972 Enters Asteroid Belt
03 Dec 1973 200,000 km Jupiter Fly-By
31 Mar 1997 End of science mission
27 Apr 2002 Last telemetry data received
23 Jan 2003 Last signal received
04 Mar 2006 Last attempt to acquire signal fails
in 126,000 years No longer dominated by gravitational force of sun
in 2 million years Aldebean Fly-By

Pioneer 11
06 Apr 1973 (02:11) Launch
02 Dec 1974 34,000 km Jupiter Fly-By
01 Sep 1979 21,000 km Saturn Fly-By
30 Sep 1995 End of science mission
30 Nov 1995 Last signal received
in 4 million years Lambda Aquilla Fly-By

Thanks Doug. That was the graph I was working from, though it has some shortcomings, such as the altitude referencing to MOLA and the touchdown being at altitude 0km even though the actual landing site is (as seen on the image) somewhere between 3 and 5 kms below MOLA. It also has a time elapsed of 470secs from entry interface to touchdown, which now seems to be 440 sec (+/- 30 secs).

On that note, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex visitor center told me at they have received information as of earlier this week that the nominal landing is on May 25, 23:53:52 UTC (+/- 30 secs) and atmospheric entry at 23:46:32 UTC (Earth Received Time). In Spacecraft Event Time, atmospheric entry is thus at 23:31:12 and landing at 23:38:32. (One-way light-time will be 920 secs)

I'll update the scripts in due course and will post a message here once that's done.

Edit: fixed error in SCET landing time

I am in the midst of programming a rather simple javascript to keep track of Phoenix's progress (and later EDL) together with a timeline of events. The current version is online at www.dmuller.net/phoenix, but if anybody has more details, I would greatly appreciate any input, in particular of upcoming events and their anticipated timing, as well as details during the atmospheric flight (altitude, speed, downrange). For all times, it would also be great to know their timezone and whether they are SCET or ERT. The "positions" information is calculated based on data downloaded from the SSD Horizons system, which is available right up to the Entry Interface.

Naturally, I also welcome any suggestions on what other information could be added to the script.

I can also provide an off-line version of the script (does not require php) e.g. for public display in a visitor center.

Please post any information / feedback / requests either here or send me an email through my public profile on this board. I may not respond for a couple of days as I will not have internet access.

Thanks a lot to everybody!

Phoenix Entry Interface in 41 days 22 hours. Distance to fly: 79.7 million km. Altitude above Mars: 9.6 million km

I believe it's more of a "straight-in-and-down" approach, not much orbiting around Mars. The last trajectory maneuver 22 hours before landing will be at about 230,000 km, 10 times as far away as the Deimos orbit. At that time, the gravitational acceleration to the sun is still greater than that to Mars (barring any errors in my algebra)! At the moment, Phoenix is 9.7 million kms above Mars, but still has 81 million kms to go. According to the Phoenix website, its speed at Entry Interface (first contact with the Martian atmosphere, is 5.7 km/sec