KSC-05pd2550

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Boeing workers garbed in clean room suits move the protective cover of the transportation canister away from the third stage, or upper stage, for the New Horizons spacecraft, in the background. The third stage is a Boeing STAR 48 solid-propellant kick motor. The launch vehicle for New Horizons is the Atlas V rocket, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., during a 35-day window that opens Jan. 11, and fly through the Pluto system as early as summer 2015.