Mike Lynch, Carlos Castillo and Jim Hutcheson of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory apply thermally insulating Kapton tape between the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft and the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument during pre-launch operations at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Oct 5. Below PEPSSI is the slot for the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument, which was re-installed following the PEPSSI operations, and atop the spacecraft is the nearly 7-foot diameter dish antenna New Horizons will use to send data back from the distant planet.

Launch is scheduled during a 35-day window that opens on January 11, 2006.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

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