NASA's Jupiter Probe Ready for Launch

NASA's Jupiter Probe Ready for Launch - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

"NASA's Juno spacecraft is getting ready to lift off on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011. On Aug. 4, at about 5 a.m. PDT (8 a.m. EDT), the Jupiter explorer will be rolled some 1,800 feet (about 550 meters) from the 286-foot-tall (87-meter) Vertical Integration Facility, where the Atlas V rocket and Juno were mated, to its launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

'Our next move will be much farther -- about 1,740 million miles [2,800 million kilometers] to Jupiter,' said Jan Chodas, Juno project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 'The rollout completes Juno's journey on Earth, and now we're excited to be taking our first step into space.'

The launch period for Juno opens Aug. 5 and extends through Aug. 26. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2016. For an Aug. 5 liftoff, the launch window opens at 8:34 a.m. PDT (11:34 a.m. EDT) and remains open through 9:43 a.m. PDT (12:43 p.m. EDT)."

No comments:

Post a Comment