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The New Horizons spacecraft

author: Nasa/Novapix

reference: e-son40-00102

Image Size 300 DPI: 16 * 25 cm

At NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, technicians from the Applied Physics Laboratory work on the New Horizons spacecraft. They have been installing side panels on the spacecraft. A series of interconnecting panels will enclose the spacecraft beneath the antenna to maintain safe operating temperatures in space. New Horizons will make the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon - a "double planet" and the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft. The mission will then visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. New Horizons is scheduled to launch in January 2006, swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February or March 2007, and reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, in July 2015.

Keywords for this photo:

2005 - CAPE CANAVERAL - HUMAN - KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - NEW HORIZONS - PERSON - PREPARATION - SPACE - SPACECRAFT - SPACEPROBE -