shuttlecentaur

This is the Centaur stage that was designed for use with the space shuttle. It was scheduled to launch the Galileo probe to Jupiter. In fact, in the upper left quadrant, the sign behind the viewing stand has a picture of Jupiter and Saturn. There were many risks involving having a liquid fueled rocket in the shuttle's cargo bay: in the case of an abort, the explosive liquid fuel of the Centaur would have to be jettisoned. Moreover, the increasing weight of the shuttle and the Centaur stage meant that the shuttle main engines would have to operate at 109% for part of the ascent phase. The increase in risk was significant, but engineers and astronauts had signed off on it. However, following the space shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986, the program was cancelled.

Here's a short video about choosing the boosters for the Galileo mission. It includes some musings on Congress' role in the process: vimeo.com/87712113

Model of the Centaur-G and the Galileo probe it was originally slated to propel to Jupiter after boosted into orbit aboard a Space Shuttle. After the explosion of Challenger (OV-099)in 1986, the risk of using the liquid fueled Centaur-G to boost payloads from the Shuttle's low Earth orbit were deemed to be too great, and Centaur-G was never used. However, a variant, the Centaur-T, would be used to boost payloads launched into orbit by the Titan IV rocket (itself used to launch payloads originally intended for the Shuttle prior to the Challenger's loss). See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(rocket_stage)

Despite the banner in the background, this photo has little (if anything) to do with Atlas. The rocket in the foreground and the ones on the right side of the image are (probably) "ordinary" Centaur stages destined to be used with Titan III or Atlas. But there's no Atlas in the picture. What IS noteworthy are the three tanks in the upper center and left. These look like the Centaur stage that was designed to fit in the Space Shuttle's cargo bay - they never flew, as the Shuttle Centaur program was cancelled a few months after the Challenger disaster. A good account of the Shuttle Centaur program can be found online; search for "Long-forgotten Shuttle/Centaur boosted Cleveland's NASA center" by John Mangels.

See: www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2011/12/long-forgotte...

The 3 Centaur stages at the bottom are for the Titan 4 version. The centaur stage TC 13 are a modified version of Centaur G-Prime for the Titan IV. 16 were produced (TC-8 through TC-23).