NEW HORIZON 
Flyby Probe to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt


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November 4, 2005

The Pluto New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket in January 2006. Designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, New Horizons will make the first reconnaissance of Pluto and its multiple moons. In addition to observing the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft, the mission will also visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. To reach its intended destination, the spacecraft will first swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost, conduct related scientific studies through February or March 2007 and eventually reach Pluto by July 2015.

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New Horizon probe being readied. View looking down the radioisotope thermoelectric generator, New Horizon with the RTG at right foreground The New Horizon probe as its assembly is completed.
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The Student Dust Counter (SDC) will count and measure the sizes of dust particles along New Horizons' entire trajectory, which covers regions of interplanetary space never before sampled. Another set of 4 hydrazine thrusters for pointing, course corrections and KBO targeting. REX is an acronym for "radio experiment," - it is a small printed circuit board, containing sophisticated electronics, integrated into the New Horizons radio telecommunications system.
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RTG-Probe interface. Technicians install the last thermal blanket segments. New Horizon probe with its launch fairing in the back ground