mccauley@h-sc1.UUCP (01/30/86)
I understand that the Galileo probe has a two-week launch window in March. The next window will be in two years. Since it is very unlikely that the Shuttle program will be reinstated by then, does this mean that Galileo is dead? Is there any way that this probe could be launched by other rockets in time? Scott McCauley harvard!h-sc1!mccauley.UUCP jsm@tardis.ARPA
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (02/04/86)
> I understand that the Galileo probe has a two-week launch window in March. I think it's in June, actually. > The next window will be in two years. There is a launch window for Jupiter about once a year, since Jupiter orbits fairly slowly and Earth's own motion dominates the window timing, but they're not all equally good. In particular, the arrival velocity varies some, and low arrival velocity is important for missions like Galileo that are doing more than just a flyby. It may well be that the 1987 window is a poor one. > Since it is very unlikely that the > Shuttle program will be reinstated by then, > does this mean that Galileo is dead? No, but delayed almost certainly. It would be a minor miracle to get the Ulysses and Galileo launches off on time in June, even if the Challenger problem is diagnosed and fixed quickly. (Ulysses too wants to go into the Jupiter launch window.) The schedule was looking tight as it was, with some problems in getting the Centaur G-Prime upper stage ready for the shuttle cargo bay. It's not as if Galileo hasn't been delayed plenty already... :-< > Is there any way that this probe could be launched by other rockets in time? I doubt it very much. It's a big, heavy probe, with a high velocity needed; Shuttle plus Centaur-G-Prime is the heaviest booster the US has right now. The few heavy expendables the US has are all earmarked for other things, and I'm not sure Galileo would fit under their payload shrouds anyway -- it was really designed for Shuttle launch. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
kwan@smeagol.UUCP (Richard Kwan) (02/12/86)
In <895@h-sc1.UUCP>, Scott McCauley writes: > I understand that the Galileo probe has a two-week launch window in March. > The next window will be in two years. Since it is very unlikely that the > Shuttle program will be reinstated by then, does this mean that Galileo is dead? > Is there any way that this probe could be launched by other rockets in time? I just called the public information office here. The launch window is actually about three weeks long going from the middle of May to the first week in June. The launch was originally scheduled for May 21. It is now indefinitely postponed (pending, of course, what happens with the shuttle). The next window would otherwise be in June 1987. Rick Kwan JPL Spacecraft Data Systems group
dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz) (02/19/86)
Both Ulysses and Galileo use Centaur upper stages, and only two shuttles were configured to carry these: Atlantis and Challenger. Now only Atlantis can.