NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft was launched aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket on yesterday after two delays caused by high winds and power failures.
The craft, built by Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory, achieved a sucessful liftoff at 21:00 GMT on 19 February from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral US Air Force station, Florida (pictured left)
The plutonium radioisotope thermoelectric generator powered spacecraft will be the first to visit the Pluto-Charon double planetoid system when it arrives in 2015. It will reach Pluto via a Jupiter gravity-assist in February 2007. After its encounter with Pluto it will investigate the Kuiper belt from 2016-2020.
NASA says: "As the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon, New Horizons looks to unlock one of the solar system's last, great planetary secrets."
| NEW HORIZON MISSION MILESTONES |
|
| February 2007 | Jupiter gravity assist |
| March 2007 - June 2015 | Interplanetary cruise |
| July 2015 | Pluto-Charon encounter |
| 2016-2020 | Kuiper Belt objects encounter |
External links:
For more information, visit NASA's New Horizon programme web site:
Source: Flight International
