On Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station the first stage of an Atlas V rocket is lifted.

On Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first stage of an Atlas V rocket is lifted off the transporter. The rocket will be raised to vertical and then moved into the Vertical Integration Facility to begin preparations for launch. The Lockheed Martin Atlas V is the launch vehicle for the New Horizons spacecraft, which is designed to make 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.