KSC-05PD-2246

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane sits on NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Inside is the New Horizons spacecraft and affiliated ground support equipment that will be offloaded and transported to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. 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.