Tuesday August 9, 2011
Volume CXXXI Issue 6
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Richard Weakley Photo Editor
The Juno spacecraft destined for Jupiter thundered into blue skies on Friday, August 5, at 12:25 p.m. EDT aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station. T h e launch was delayed 51 minutes by a couple of technical issues and of a boat being within the launch danger zone. The launch danger zone is an area extending 201 nautical miles off the coast of CCAFS in which boats and aircraft must stay out of during a launch due to hazards due to the solid rocket boosters falling back to the Earth and possible dangers if the vehicle experienced an anomaly. The vehicle was ready for flight after Air Force helicopters escorted the boat out of the danger zone and the technical issues were resolved by the launch team. The Atlas V 551 vehicle stands 197 feet tall and produces 2.5 million pounds of thrust. The Atlas V 551 is the most powerful version of the Atlas V currently offered by United Launch Alliance with a five meter diameter fairing, five solid rocket boosters and
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a Centaur upper stage. This is the 27th Atlas V flight and the second of the vehicle in the 551 configuration. The Atlas V with the Juno spacecraft
broke the sound barrier at 34 seconds into flight with the solid NASA/JPL rocket booster burning out and separating approx-
imately one minute later in the flight. The payload fairing was jettisoned three and a half minutes into
flight with the main engine cutoff occurring one minute later. After separation of the Refined Petroleum-1 and liquid oxygen fueled first stage, the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen
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fueled RL 10A engine of the Centaur upper stage burned for six minutes placing the spacecraft in a temporary parking orbit. Thirty-one minutes later, a nine minute burn accelerated the spacecraft to Earth escape velocity with Juno separating from the Centaur stage three minutes later. The
of the planet for approximately one Earth year or 32 orbits. Juno weighs in at approximately four tons, is 15 feet tall and has a diameter of 66 feet with the three solar panel arrays fully deployed. The mission’s primary goal is to improve our understanding of the evolution and structure of the planet Jupiter through the use of nine onboard instruments. The mission will determine the composition, temperature and movements of the planet’s atmosphere and clouds. Additionally the magnetic and gravitational fields will be investigated to learn about the planet’s magnetosphere and possible existence of a solid core. The next launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will be NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. The mission will consist of two spacecraft that will be placed in lunar orbit to measure the moon’s gravity fields, revealing its subsurface structure and thermal history, GRAIL will be launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 7920-Heavy launch vehicle on September 8. The launch window opens at 8:37 a.m. EDT and extends to 9:16 a.m. EDT.
Juno spacec r a f t is set to arrive in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Currently, Juno is on its way towards Mars and after two years, Juno will return to Earth’s orbit for a gravity-assisted flyby to give the spacecraft the needed velocity to reach Jupiter. After arriving at Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft will fly a highly elliptical orbit 3100 miles above the top layer of clouds
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The scientific payload aboard Juno includes: •A gravity/radio science system •A six-wavelength microwave radiometer for atmospheric sounding and composition •A vector magnetometer •Plasma and energetic particle detectors • A radio/plasma wave experiment •An ultraviolet imager/spectrometer •An infrared imager/ spectrometer •JunoCam – visible light camera
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The First Avenger does not disappoint at the box office PHOTO COURTESY PARAMOUNT PICTURES
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