Dec 18 2003
From The Space Library
NASA released the first pictures from its Space Infrared Telescope Facility and officially renamed the craft Spitzer Space Telescope. NASA had named the telescope for one of the 20th century's most influential scientists, Princeton University astronomer Lyman Spitzer Jr., who in 1946 had first proposed placing telescopes in space. Spitzer had been a major force behind the 1990 launch of the HST, the first of NASA's Great Observatories. With the release of the Spitzer Space Telescope's first observations~a glowing stellar nursery; a swirling, dusty galaxy; a disc of planet-forming debris; and organic material in the distant universe~Project Scientist Michael Werner of NASA's JPL remarked that the telescope was working extremely well. The fourth of its Great Observatories, NASA had designed the craft with powerful infrared detectors to capture never-before-seen cosmic features. Unlike its predecessor Great Observatories, which circle
Earth, NASA had deployed the Spitzer Space Telescope in a novel trajectory that placed it in an orbit closely trailing that of Earth. (NASA, “NASA Releases Dazzling Images from New Space Telescope,” news release 03-411, 18 December 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/dec/HQ_03411_newly_named_prt.htm (accessed 23 March 2009); Patty Reinert, “Stargazer's Delight: NASA's New Space Infrared Telescope Puts On a Dazzling Show,” Houston Chronicle, 19 December 2003.
NASA announced the successful completion of a series of engine and parachute tests, clearing the way for NASA to carry out integrated Pad Abort Demonstration (PAD) test flights to support its Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program. In November and December 2003, engineers had conducted a series of 14 hot-fire tests of a 50,000-pound-thrust (22,680-kilogram-thrust) RS-88 rocket engine, resulting in a total of 55 seconds of successful engine operation. The Rocketdyne Propulsion Power unit of the Boeing Company had designed and built the engine. On 9 December 2003, engineers had tested the parachutes at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona, verifying the function, performance, and stability of an 80-foot (24.38-meter) drogue parachute and of four 156-foot (47.55-meter) main parachutes. Testers had dropped a 12.5-ton (1 1.34-tonne or 1 1,340-kilogram) pallet from 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) to simulate the size and weight of a vehicle and crew. The pallet had descended to a soft landing under nearly two acres of parachutes. (NASA, “Engine, Parachute Tests Pave Way for Launch Escape System,” news release 03-417, 18 December 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/dec/HQ_03417_escape_system.html (accessed 23 March 2003).
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