New Horizons

Overview

Destination: Solar Escape Trajectory
Mission: Robotic Exploration

Solar Escape Trajectory Space Launch Complex 41 Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow. It is the fifth artificial object to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.

Atlas V 551

Family: Atlas
Configuration: 551

Atlas V is an expendable launch system in the Atlas rocket family. It was formerly operated by Lockheed Martin and is now operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture with Boeing. Each Atlas V rocket uses a Russian-built RD-180 engine burning kerosene and liquid oxygen to power its first stage and an American-built RL10 engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to power its Centaur upper stage. The RD-180 engines are provided by RD Amross, while Aerojet Rocketdyne provides both the RL10 engines and the strap-on boosters used in some configurations. The standard payload fairing sizes are 4 or 5 meters in diameter and of various lengths. Fairings sizes as large as 7.2 m in diameter and up to 32.3 m in length have been considered. The rocket is assembled in Decatur, Alabama and Harlingen, Texas.

Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    59.7 m
  • Diameter
    3.8 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.4 m
  • Launch Mass
    573 T
  • Thrust
    12269 kN
Family
  • Name
    Atlas V 551
  • Family
    Atlas
  • Variant
    551
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Atlas V 551
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $153000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    18850 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8890 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
    3850 kg
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

United Launch Alliance

Circle Image
CEO: Tory Bruno Founded: 2006 Successes: 158 Failures: 0 Pending: 37

Agency Type: Commercial

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.

INFO WIKI

Related News

SpaceNews

Debate rages about future of New Horizons

NASA and the science team for a spacecraft in the outer reaches of the solar system are locked in a dispute about the future of that mission and the science it can perform.

Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Space Launch Complex 41


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Soyuz MS-24
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz MS-24 carried two cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in K…


Firefly Alpha
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
FLTA003 (VICTUS NOX)
Space Launch Complex 2W - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Third flight of the Firefly Alpha small sat launcher, carrying a payload for the US Department of Defense.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 7-2
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Atlas V 551
Success
2 weeks, 3 days ago
NROL-107 (Silent Barker)
Space Launch Complex 41 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Classified space situational awareness (SSA) payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).


Long March 6A
Success
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Yaogan 40
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

3 Chinese reconnaissance satellites of unknown purposes, officially reported as for "Electromagnetic environment probing" purposes.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 6-14
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


SpaceShipTwo
Success
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Galactic 03
Spaceport America - Air launch to Suborbital flight

Third commercial Virgin Galactic mission.


H-IIA 202
Success
2 weeks, 6 days ago
XRISM & SLIM
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), formerly the X-Ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM), is a replacement for the Hitomi satellite that …


Long March 4C
Success
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Yaogan 33-03
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

The Yaogan 33-03 is a Chinese military “remote sensing” satellite of unknown purpose.


Ceres-1S
Success
3 weeks, 1 day ago
4x Tianqi
DeFu-15002 mobile launch platform - Sea Launch

4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.