The Lockheed Martin Atlas V Centaur stage arrives at the mobile service tower on Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Lockheed Martin Atlas V Centaur stage arrives at the mobile service tower on Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Centaur is the second stage of the launch vehicle for the New Horizons spacecraft. Seen in the tower is the first stage. New Horizons will make the first reconnaissance of Pluto and its moon, Charon - a "double planet" and the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft. 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. 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 Charon in July 2015.