![]() Magellan deployed at about six inches per second at first, with the shuttle in free drift. Activating a switch, a metal band released the IUS and springs pushed the probe out of the payload bay. Six hours and 14 minutes into the spaceflight, with the payload bay doors open, the crew of STS-30 raised Magellan 29 degrees and then on up to 52 degrees for the deployment. Magellan also repurposed a spare Voyager high-gain antenna to both communicate with Earth and for radar imaging. Magellan’s bus utilized a host of spare parts from Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses, and Mariner 9. Magellan was a resourceful project with an ambitious objective-orbit the planet, capturing radar images of the surface to develop a topographic map. Magellan was bound for Venus, the first NASA mission to Earth’s “sister planet” since The Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe arrived there in 1978. The Magellan spacecraft, which arrived at Venus in 1990, made the first global map of the surface of Venus as well as global maps of the planet’s gravity field. It was about 21 feet tall and 15 feet in diameter. Fully loaded with propellant, Magellan weighed 7,612 pounds. In the payload bay was Magellan, a space probe comprising a 10-sided aluminum bus and an equipment module mated to the dependable Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster, topped by antennas and flanked by solar panels that were extended after deployment. The mission specialists for STS-30 were Norman E. Both men were making their second spaceflight. Grabe, also an accomplished aviator who studied aeronautics as a Fulbright Scholar in 1967 and logged more than 5,500 hours flying time. Walker, an accomplished aviator with extensive experience flying F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats. The Commander of the mission was David M. But with conditions improved and with just five minutes left in the launch window, STS-30 launched. A launch attempt on April 28 was scrubbed at T-31 seconds and the crew began to relax again, as NASA held the count at T-5 minutes monitoring low clouds and light wind gusts that might postpone the launch. In the early afternoon of May 4, 1989, the crew of STS-30 patiently waited in the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a 64-minute launch window slowly slipped away. NPR 7120.5 Revision F Rollout Briefing (NASA Only)Ĭrew of STS-30 sends probe to map volcanic surface of Venus.Lessons Learned Lifecycle and Highlights.Systems and Engineering Leadership Program (SELP).
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