"Celebrating Centaur: Then and Now"
A commemorative ceremony and
historical reunion honoring the Centaur stage booster, "Celebrating
Centaur: Then and Now," will take place from to 1530 Friday, at the
Lockheed Martin Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station.
More than 150 personnel who worked on the Centaur program over a
span of more than 40 years will be on hand to reminisce about their
participation in the program's storied history. They also will hear
a bevy of space industry leaders discuss the rocket's past, present
and future legacy.
The Centaur high-energy upper stage has been used for 128
missions for NASA, in addition to its history of commercial and
U.S. Air Force missions launched aboard the Atlas and Titan.
Ceremony participants include Jim Kennedy, director of the
Kennedy Space Center; U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. (Select) Mark Owen,
commander of the 45th Space Wing; and Steve Francois, director of
NASA's Launch Services Program Office.
Other guest speakers include Jim Sponnick, Lockheed Martin Atlas
Program vice president; Adriane Laffitte, director of Atlas
Programs at Cape Canaveral; and Dr. Virginia P. Dawson, co-author
of "Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur Upper Stage Rocket
1958-2002."
Media may attend a series of tours and a barbecue lunch
following the ceremony. Tours include the Atlas Space Operations
Center and the blockhouse at Launch Complex 36, the birthplace of
the Centaur launch program, with access to Pad 39-B. At this
location, or at other locations if desired, members of the press
will have an opportunity to interview launch team members from
throughout the Centaur's history.
Tours also include the Launch Complex 41 facilities where the
history of the Centaur continues, and NASA's Mission Directors
Center, from where all of the Agency's Centaur launch countdowns
were directed and NASA launches continue to be managed today.
Media who wish to attend must be at the KSC Press Site at 9 a.m.
for transportation to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center.
Transportation back to the KSC Press Site will be available at
various times during the day's activities.
The Centaur, developed by NASA and originally manufactured by
General Dynamics, had its first successful launch on Nov. 27, 1963,
atop an Atlas booster from 36-A. With only a single exception,
every NASA spacecraft bound for the outer planets has been launched
using a Centaur.
The Centaur legacy will continue this year with the launch of
the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and in 2006, with the launch of
Pluto New Horizons to the outermost planet in the Solar System.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.04.24)
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