Galileo IUS ignition Options

[kwan3217]

There are lots of pictures of Galileo being ejected from the cargo bay of the space shuttle, but so far I haven't been able to find any pictures of Galileo when the IUS first stage lit up and Galileo departed for Venus. Is this because there aren't any such pictures?

Basically I want to see what a solid fuel motor looks like when it is fired in space. I suspect it is quite different from the billowing gray smoke we are used to seeing when one is lit in the atmosphere.

[Jim from NSF.com]

DSP-14 thru 22, except number 17 flew on T-IV IUS. 17 flew on STS-44

DSP was the largest user of IUS. Before,T-IV was the CELV, only 10 launches were to be procured and DSP was a few of them. After Challenger, all moved to T-IV except the one on a previously pay for shuttle mission

The first Titan-IV was a DSP/IUS.

T-IV/IUS was an inefficient combination. It could only launch 5300lb to GSO. The IUS cost was near a T-IV Centaur. Now, an intermediate EELV could launch it. But due to many things including fairing requirements, DSP-23, the last one, is fly on a D-IV heavy


Since most Shuttle/IUS missions were performance critical, the RMS did not fly on them