Cassini Mission Ends
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October 2017 Vol. 4 No. 10 National Aeronautics and Space Administration KENNEDY SPACE CENTER’S magazine CASSINI MISSION ENDS WITH FINAL PLUNGE TO SATURN KENNEDY SPACE CENTER’S SPACEPORT MAGAZINE CONTENTS NASA’S LAUNCH I am a robotics and design engineer and a founding member of the Swamp Works lab at Kennedy Space 4 ...................... NASA’s Cassini spacecraft makes final descent to Saturn SCHEDULE Center. The majority of my job entails technology development for surface systems. This basically Date: Nov. 10 means whether we go back to the Moon or go to 8 ...................... Kennedy Space Center safely weathers Hurricane Irma Mission: NOAA Joint Polar Satellite Mars, we will eventually need landing and launch System-1 (JPSS-1) pads, roads and habitats, and we will need to use Description: JPSS is a next-generation The Earth is the cradle the resources that are available at our destination for 10 ................... Wayne Kee inducted into Public Service Hall of Fame environmental satellite system. It is a of humanity, but construction and for the return propellants to get back collaborative program between the National to Earth. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mankind cannot stay (NOAA) and NASA. The polar-orbiting in the cradle forever. The coolest part of my job is coming up with new 14 ................... Advanced Plant Habitat verification test complete weather satellite will launch from Vandenberg technology that will help NASA have a sustained Air Force Base in California on a United presence on the Moon or Mars. Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. -Konstantin Tsiolkovsky ................... Oil Pharmacy streamlines petroleum distribution at Kennedy https://go.nasa.gov/2rW4DCf When not at work, I enjoy spending time with my two 16 daughters and my wife, and hanging out with friends. Date: Dec. 8 One fun fact about me that my co-workers give me a Mission: Ionospheric Connection Explorer hard time about is that I have never watched any of 18 ................... Energy Awareness Month to focus on solar power (ICON) the Star Wars movies. Description: The Ionospheric Connection Explorer will study the frontier of space, the ................... Workshops provide resources, training to Florida STEM teachers dynamic zone high in our atmosphere where 22 Earth weather and space weather meet. ICON will launch from Kwajalein Atoll aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket. https://www.nasa.gov/icon Want to see a launch? The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers the closest public viewing of launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Launch Transportation Tickets are available for some, but not all, of these launches. Call 321-449-4444 for information on purchasing tickets. COVER: With this view, Cassini captured one of its last looks at Saturn and its main rings from a distance Sept. 11, 2017. The Saturn system has been Cassini’s home for 13 years, but that journey came to an end Sept. 15, 2017, when the spacecraft made its final plunge to Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute To get the latest Kennedy Space Center updates, follow us on our Blog, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. KSC BLOG To learn more about Drew Smith, go to https://youtu.be/Y5LXs9AfF9g THE SPACEPORT MAGAZINE TEAM Editorial Writers Group Creative Group Drew Smith Editor ............................ Linda Herridge Anna Heiney Bob Granath Richard Beard Amy Lombardo Robotics Engineer Copy Editor ................... Kay Grinter Kay Grinter Greg Lee Matthew Young SP-2017-09-1034-KSC GRAND FINALE NASA’s Cassini spacecraft makes final descent to Saturn BY LINDA HERRIDGE A seven-year journey to the ringed planet Saturn begins with the liftoff of a Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini orbiter and its attached Huygens probe. Launch occurred at 4:43 a.m. EDT, Oct. 15, 1997, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA The spacecraft and its attached Huygens probe launched aboard day. When Cassini arrived, it was processed in three or four different a Titan IVB/Centaur rocket on Oct. 15,1997, from Launch facilities at Kennedy. The Huygens probe was in one facility, Cassini Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on its in another, and three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, he spacecraft that revealed the seven-year, 2.2-billion-mile journey. It traveled another 1.1 billion or RTGs, in another. Then, they all had to come together in a T miles while in orbit around Saturn. hazardous fueling facility. remarkable planet Saturn to the Chuck Dovale, deputy program manager of the Launch Services “A larger than average Kennedy workforce was working Cassini,” world and sent back stunning images Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, served as Dovale said. “Back then, ELV was a small part of the big picture the alternate launch director for the Cassini mission. at Kennedy. Many times the center was working on space shuttle of its rings and nearby moons has “Truthfully, I was probably scared to death because it was such missions and ELV was kind of set on its own. This time, the entire completed its mission. NASA’s an important mission for NASA at the time,” Dovale said. “It was center came together and rallied around Cassini because of the huge for the expendable launch vehicle (ELV) community.” enormity of the mission.” Cassini spacecraft made its final Dovale recalls that the day of the first launch attempt, the ELV Cassini arrived in the Saturn system on June 30, 2004, and grand finale plunge into Saturn’s team stood down due to high winds, which actually served as a good began a four-year mission to study the giant planet, its rings, Cassini gazes across the icy rings of Saturn toward practice round. When they came in the second day, the actual day of moons and magnetosphere. The spacecraft made 22 weekly dives the icy moon Tethys, whose night side is illuminated atmosphere Sept. 15, 2017. Cassini launch, it felt like they had more experience. between the planet and its rings. It continued to beam back to Earth by Saturnshine, or sunlight reflected by the planet. Photo credit: NASA/JPL made distant flybys of Saturn moons “It was definitely hand-wringing and a lot of stress,” Dovale hundreds of gigabytes of scientific data. The Huygens probe made said. “We worked anomalies through countdown. Processing and the first landing on a moon (Titan) in the outer solar system. Janus, Pan, Pandora and Epimetheus launching Cassini was such a high bar to set for the expendable The Cassini mission helped set in motion the creation of the before making its last dive. launch vehicle team. And the Titan IV rocket was a pretty new Launch Services Program based at Kennedy. The tasks that were vehicle to the organization at the time.” spread out across three centers were now going to be consolidated at Processing Cassini was different back then compared to present Kennedy. 4 SPACEPORT Magazine SPACEPORT Magazine 5 Workers install three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) on the Cassini spacecraft Oct. 10, 1997. RTGs are lightweight, compact spacecraft electrical power systems that have flown successfully on previous U.S. missions. These generators produce power by converting heat into electrical energy; the heat is provided by the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 dioxide, a non-weapons-grade material. Photo credit: NASA The program now has been launching robotic satellites for accelerations and displacements) for low-frequency vibrations and nearly two decades for the agency. Some of the same vehicles will estimated the loads that would be seen during flight for Cassini and be used by the Commercial Crew Program to launch crews to the the Titan IV rocket. International Space Station. Dovale said there’s a lot more synergy “It’s all special memories for me. It was a special and challenging within Kennedy and the entire agency because of that. project,” Abdallah said. “I owe a lot of my current experience and Some of the Cassini team from Glenn Research Center (formerly knowledge to the Cassini project. I consider working the Cassini Lewis) in Cleveland, Ohio, now work in LSP at Kennedy. Two of project to be the highlight of my career.” them are Michael Carney, chief of the Flight Analysis Division, and Carney and Abdallah are both proud to have worked on a Ayman Abdallah, Ph.D., a structural dynamics discipline expert also mission that was so successful. in the Flight Analysis Division. As for Cassini’s final plunge, Dovale said it’s a little bittersweet, Carney supported the nuclear launch approval process for but it’s provided amazing images and literally is rewriting the history Cassini. His role was leading the effort that generated the launch books. “There is stuff we’re learning just from seeing storms on vehicle accident data necessary to assess the risks of launching a Saturn that are actually educating us here on how storms behave on spacecraft with RTGs. This work was one element of a complex Earth. That’s incredible to know,” Dovale said. multi-agency process required to gain launch approval for the Only a handful of folks who worked hands-on with Cassini mission. He has been involved in launch vehicle work for nearly 35 remain at the agency, and Dovale says they’re always ready to share years at Glenn and Kennedy. information with curious new members of the Launch Services “Like all aspects of the Cassini mission, nothing was easy, team. including the part of the mission that I supported,” Carney said. “I “They seek us out to ask what it was like and what’s different remember the work being a great challenge, but with that challenge about Cassini than it is today.