Sep 5 1977
From The Space Library
September 5-7: NASA launched the 18201b Voyager 1 from Cape Canaveral on a Titan/Centaur vehicle at 8:56am EDT Sept. 5 in a firing described as flawless by project manager John Casani. A second burn of the Centaur at 9:49am boosted the spacecraft out of earth orbit; firing and jettison of the onboard propulsion module sent Voyager 1 on a trajectory toward Jupiter, where it should arrive 4mo before its sister ship launched Aug. 20. JPL reported Sept. 6 that Voyager 1 was proceeding "without any of the problems that plagued Voyager 2." NASA had postponed the Voyager 1 launch to permit installation of extra springs to lock the second spacecraft's science boom in place. The Voyager 1 launch would be the last time NASA would use the Titan-Centaur, although the USAF would continue to use its Titan for future missions, most of them secret. (Voyager mission status bulletin 6; W Star, Sept 6/77, A-2; Sept 7/77, A-14; NYT, Sept 6/77, 1, 22; Sept 7/77, A-18; C Trib, Sept 6/77, l-1, 1-24; W Post, Sept 6/77, A-2; P Ing, Sept 6/77; LA Times, Sept 6/77; Today, Sept 6/77, 1A; D/SD, Sept 7/77, 8)
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