Inside the RTG facility at Kennedy Space Center Tim Frazier Mervin Smith and Tim Hoye inspect after its arrival.

Inside the RTG facility at Kennedy Space Center, Tim Frazier, Mervin Smith and Tim Hoye inspect the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) after its arrival. Frazier is with the Department of Energy, which has provided the radioisotope, and Hoye is with Lockheed Martin. The RTG is the baseline power supply for the NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, scheduled to launch in January 2006 on a journey to Pluto and its moon, Charon. As it approaches Pluto, the spacecraft will look for ultraviolet emission from Pluto's atmosphere and make the best global maps of Pluto and Charon in green, blue, red and a special wavelength that is sensitive to methane frost on the surface. It will also take spectral maps in the near infrared, telling the science team about Pluto's and Charon's surface compositions and locations and temperatures of these materials. When the spacecraft is closest to Pluto or its moon, it will take close-up pictures in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. It is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015.