A massive S-II-T Saturn rocket stage is installed on Nov. 18, 1965 for testing on what now is the A-2 Test Stand at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center. The S-II-T – known as “T-Bird” – was the first Saturn booster stage to be tested at Stennis, which then was known as the Mississippi Test Facility. Workers at the facility later would test the Saturn V first-stage booster for the Apollo Program that carried humans to the moon and back in July 1969.
Rocket long Engine
Rocket Engine Nozzle
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US Martian nuke-truck launches
The Centaur's engine, which produces 22,300 lb of thrust, fired up about 10 seconds later, then burned for seven minutes, shutting off exactly on time to place the MSL – and itself – in a "parking" orbit where it went into a 19-minute coast phase before a second 8-minute burn sent it into what NASA calls a "planetary trajectory".
That trajectory places the MSL on its way to Mars after separating from the Centaur booster 44 minutes into the flight – a moment that prompted applause from the space boffins assembled in the Kennedy Space Center.
All was not smooth, however. During the coast phase there were repeated brief – and disconcerting – data losses from the launch vehicle. The data losses continued to crop up during the coast phase, though NASA provided no details on their cause until 34 minutes into the flight, at which point the NASA commentator said that there appeared to be "a problem within the vehicle."
Each time the telemetry was reestablished, however, NASA reported that the data showed all systems to be operating as expected.
The 8-minute planetary trajectory burn began during a period of telemetry loss, though telemetry kicked back in soon afterward, showing that the burn levels were as expected. Thirty-six minutes into the flight, however, the NASA announcer said that "We are now seeing nice, clean telemetry data."
But with the spent Centaur booster now on its way to orbit the sun, and a healthy MSL spacecraft on its way to Mars, launch-vehicle telemetry is not a worry – NASA confirmed good contact with the MSL spacecraft, now on its own, 53 minutes into the flight.
That trajectory places the MSL on its way to Mars after separating from the Centaur booster 44 minutes into the flight – a moment that prompted applause from the space boffins assembled in the Kennedy Space Center.
All was not smooth, however. During the coast phase there were repeated brief – and disconcerting – data losses from the launch vehicle. The data losses continued to crop up during the coast phase, though NASA provided no details on their cause until 34 minutes into the flight, at which point the NASA commentator said that there appeared to be "a problem within the vehicle."
Each time the telemetry was reestablished, however, NASA reported that the data showed all systems to be operating as expected.
The 8-minute planetary trajectory burn began during a period of telemetry loss, though telemetry kicked back in soon afterward, showing that the burn levels were as expected. Thirty-six minutes into the flight, however, the NASA announcer said that "We are now seeing nice, clean telemetry data."
But with the spent Centaur booster now on its way to orbit the sun, and a healthy MSL spacecraft on its way to Mars, launch-vehicle telemetry is not a worry – NASA confirmed good contact with the MSL spacecraft, now on its own, 53 minutes into the flight.
When the MSL spacecraft's skycrane deposits the Curiosity rover [13] at Mars' Gale crater [14] next August, its primary mission will be to search out not life itself, but instead conditions conducive to life – at least organic life as we know it.
The Reg has written extensively about Curiosity and its goals and challenges. You can read a thorough mission overview here [15], learn more about the rover's plutonium power pack – and why is may be the last of its kind [16] – here [17], about its organic-compound-seeking Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) experiment here [18], and meet the 12-year-old who named it here [19].
There's much more Reg rover goodness and other Martian intelligence to be found by simply typing "NASA Mars" into the "Search site" field in the upper right of this page – possibly enough to keep you busy until August 2012, when we most certainly hope that we'll report that Curiosity has successfully touched down at the Gale crater, and that its scientific studies have begun.
The Reg has written extensively about Curiosity and its goals and challenges. You can read a thorough mission overview here [15], learn more about the rover's plutonium power pack – and why is may be the last of its kind [16] – here [17], about its organic-compound-seeking Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) experiment here [18], and meet the 12-year-old who named it here [19].
There's much more Reg rover goodness and other Martian intelligence to be found by simply typing "NASA Mars" into the "Search site" field in the upper right of this page – possibly enough to keep you busy until August 2012, when we most certainly hope that we'll report that Curiosity has successfully touched down at the Gale crater, and that its scientific studies have begun.
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