KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, workers offload a stand from a Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The plane delivered the New Horizons spacecraft and other equipment. After it is unloaded, the spacecraft will be transported to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. The test stand will hold the spacecraft during checkout. New Horizons is designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon - a 'double planet' and the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spac
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, workers offload a stand from a Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The plane delivered the New Horizons spacecraft and other equipment. After it is unloaded, the spacecraft will be transported to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. The test stand will hold the spacecraft during checkout. New Horizons is designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making 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.
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Photo credit: © NASA/piemags / Alamy / Afripics
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