Galileo IUS ignition |
Galileo IUS ignition |
Apr 9 2007, 01:33 AM
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#1
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 89 Joined: 27-August 05 From: Eccentric Mars orbit Member No.: 477 |
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. |
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Apr 10 2007, 06:29 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
The IUS was originally named the "Interim Upper Stage", when it was concieved as a short-on-budget stopgap that would be replaced by a combination of a true inter-orbit Space Tug ... planned as part of the Space Transportation *SYSTEM*.
When it became clear that "Interim" would last to the decay of the last proton in the universe, it was rather quietly renamed the "Inertial Upper Stage", meaning that it had 3 Axis inertial attitude control instead of spin stabilization, unlike most or all other solid fueled upper states. This bogaceously expensive solid upper stage, with the miserable specific impulse of all solid propellant upper stages, cost as much or more than an equivalent performance Centaur upper stage, particularly when amortized over the enormous development cost of the stage. In the end, it's only good feature was that as a solid fueled stage, it added minimal extra risk to Shuttle cargo missions that needed a big upper stage to deploy payloads to higher orbit.... an ability that was abandoned as fast as reasonably possible after Challenger. |
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