Posted: Fri, Jul 25, 2003, 8:52 AM ET (1252 GMT)
NASA announced this week that it has selected an Atlas 5 to launch the New Horizons mission to Pluto in 2006. An Atlas 5 551 will launch the spacecraft in January 2006 from Cape Canaveral, according to the contract announcement; the value of the launch contract was not announced. The Atlas 5 beat out the Delta 4, the other vehicle developed under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, for the launch contract. The Atlas 5 551 is the largest standard version of the Atlas 5 booster, with a five-meter payload fairing and five strap-on boosters. The booster will place New Horizons on a trajectory that will take it past Jupiter in 2007, and then past Pluto and its moon Charon in the mid-2010s. New Horizons will be the second NASA mission to fly on an EELV: the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will also launch on an Atlas 5 in 2005. That mission was originally scheduled to fly on an Atlas 3 but was moved to the Atlas 5 earlier this year.

Related Links:

•  NASA press release
•  ILS press release
•  Spaceflight Now article