Do you have any titles or NASA reference date to start the search with? Most of our Centaur data comes from the Centaur G Prime Technical Description and some documents from the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS).Also, any other photos showing the Centaur with the TPS applied would be great. The only S/C photos I have is of the one on exhibit at the US S&RC, but it along with the CISS it is mated to, has had alot of hardware including the TPS removed.And do feel free to join and post anything in our Centaur thread.
collectspace.com article on the Centaur G Prime/Centaur Integrated Support System exhibit move from the US Space & Rocket Center to NASA Glenn for its 75th anniversary: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-033016a-centaur-g-prime-move.html
One of the Centaur-G Prime stages built for the shuttle is believed to have been modified for the launch of NASA's Cassini probe to Saturn atop a Titan IVB rocket in 1997.The Space and Rocket Center had labeled the Centaur-G now being moved as a mockup, though there is some data that points to it being the other stage originally built for the program. Glenn Research Center's records identify it being a high-fidelity ground test article.
1. Were any Centaur G stages manufactured?2. What about the preparations for Shuttle/Centaur launches from Vandenberg--was there any hardware already on-site?3. Is it likely that the other Centaur Gs and G Primes were modified and used in Titan IV/Centaur launches?
Is there any lists that show the changes made to the Centaur G Prime to enable it to fly as an upper stage option on the Titan IV? Was there any changes to the tank pressurization system that was one of the reasons that the Centaur G/G Prime got the axe as an shuttle upper stage?
Anyone know what encircled items on the CISS are? Photo courtesy of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
A theoretical question: What is the maximum payload the Shuttle with Centaur (both versions) could have pushed to a standard GTO (*) or to a trans-Mars trajectory? (*) I know that most of such missions would had smaller satellites doing direct injection to geostationary, but just let's say that we have the satellite making the circulation burns here. Also what is the maximum size of the volume that can be allocated to the payload in the Shuttlr Orbiter cargo bay?