New Horizons Launch Preparations Move Ahead

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/111805.htm

New Horizons Launch Preparations Move Ahead
New Horizons Project
November 18, 2005

Mission team members say the Boeing rocket motor set to boost NASA's
New
Horizons spacecraft toward Pluto will be delivered safely and within
the
rigorous engineering standards demanded in the assembly and testing of
such hardware.

New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the
region of ancient, icy, rocky bodies on the solar system's outer
frontier. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, Fla., during a 35-day window that opens this Jan. 11 and
fly through the Pluto system as early as summer 2015. New Horizons will
be powered by a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG),
provided by the Department of Energy, which will be installed shortly
before launch.

Several hundred people around the U.S. are preparing New Horizons for
launch. When the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers went on strike in early November, five of its striking workers
were involved in final assembly of New Horizons' third stage, a Boeing
STAR 48 solid-propellant kick motor.

Boeing replaced the five striking workers with six non-striking
workers;
the extra assembly worker was added to provide additional oversight.
Each of the six current workers has at least eight years of experience
with Boeing upper stage motors and is fully qualified to work on the
project.

"Safety and mission success are of utmost importance to us," says Glen
Fountain, New Horizons project manager at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md., which manages the
mission
for NASA and built the New Horizons spacecraft. "We expect this
experienced team to finish processing the rocket motor on schedule, so
New Horizons can meet its prime launch opportunity in January."

NASA rocket experts from Kennedy Space Center, who have significant
experience with Boeing third stage motors, are providing safety and
quality assurance support. The U.S. Air Force has direct oversight of
all processing work on the motor at Cape Canaveral.

"We're more than satisfied that Boeing is addressing safety, mission
assurance and schedule," says APL's Jim Stratton, New Horizons deputy
mission systems engineer, who also serves as the mission's lead for the
third-stage motor.

Like any NASA mission designed to use an RTG, New Horizons has
undergone
extensive, multi-agency safety and risk reviews throughout its
development. Final approval to launch must come from the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy.