Today's liftoff fire and thunder will be produced by an Atlas V rocket powered by an RD-180 engine at the bottom of the Atlas V first stage. The engine, which uses two thrust chambers and nozzles, burns rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen to generate 860,200 pounds of thrust. A Centaur upper stage will take over four minutes, …
The engine on the Centaur upper stage is being conditioned for the flow of liquid hydrogen through it later in the countdown. The stage will hold about 12,000 gallons of the minus-423 degree propellant. Meanwhile, controllers also are overseeing the loading of liquid oxygen into the Atlas V first stage.
The MAVEN spacecraft will become the fourth operational spacecraft in orbit around Mars when it reaches the Red Planet in 10 months, assuming the three already there remain active. NASA's Mars Odyssey (pictured) is the elder of the group, having launched in 2001. Launched in 2003, the European Space Agency's Mars Express is the middle child …
Omar Baez, left, of NASA's Launch Services Program, or LSP, is launch manager for MAVEN. He is the highest authority during the countdown and provides NASA's "go/no-go" decision to the mission director. He sits at a console in the Atlas Space Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a building known as the ASOC. …
Propellant-loading work is going smoothly this morning with the launch team reporting the LO2 level on the Centaur upper stage at 80 percent. Launch remains on track for 1:28 p.m. EST.
The launch teams are starting the steps to load about 50,000 gallons of liquid oxygen into the first stage of the Atlas V. The lines and tanks have been chilled to accept the minus-297 degree propellant. About 26,000 gallons of refined kerosene, or RP-1, flowed into the first stage fuel tanks during the wet dress rehearsal a …
NASA's MAVEN Launch Blog originates today inside Hangar AE at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida just down the beach from Space Launch Complex 41 where the Mars-bound spacecraft stands ready for launch. AE, as NASA folks call it, traces its history back to before astronauts flew. It was built in 1959 and has …
For those folks near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, there is a list of good viewing locations here.
Liquid oxygen will start flowing into the Centaur upper stage tank momentarily. The Centaur will take about 4,000 gallons of the super-cold liquid oxygen. After the Atlas V booster stage completes the first phase of launch, the Centaur's single RL-10 engine will ignite, mixing the oxygen with liquid hydrogen to generate 22,300 pounds of thrust to …
The pipes leading from propellant storage tanks to the Atlas V rocket have been chilled to handle the cryogenic chemicals that will begin moving through them shortly. The chilldown is handled remotely by launch team controllers who basically set a very slow flow of cold materials through the lines to condition them.