Illustration of the Voyager spacecraft overlaid on a photo of Neptune that was taken by Voyager 2 less than five days prior to the probes closest approach of the planet on August 25, 1989. The photo reveals the “Great Dark Spot”– a storm in Neptunes environment– and the intense, light-blue spot of clouds that accompanies the storm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be amongst the very first to show that NASAs new space shuttle could be used to carry out science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of area. However for missions predestined for targets beyond Earth orbit the shuttle presented brand-new engineering challenges.
One of them was Galileo, JPLs flagship mission to Jupiter, whose path toward the launch pad would be complete of unanticipated twists and turns.
At the same time, the legendary Voyager 2 remained in the middle of its victorious Grand Tour through the external planets. Making use of unusual movie video and the memories of the engineers and researchers who were there, this 60-minute documentary brings alive once again the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune.
As scientist Carl Sagan declares in the film, those who created, built, and operated Voyager are “heroes of human accomplishment. Their deeds will be remembered in the history books.”
Illustration of the Voyager spacecraft overlaid on an image of Neptune that was taken by Voyager 2 less than 5 days prior to the probes closest method of the world on August 25, 1989. The photo reveals the “Great Dark Spot”– a storm in Neptunes environment– and the bright, light-blue spot of clouds that accompanies the storm. While the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its victorious Grand Tour through the outer worlds, the space shuttle bus period was underway on Earth.
While the legendary Voyager 2 remained in the middle of its victorious Grand Tour through the outer worlds, the space shuttle bus period was underway in the world. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to show how NASAs new shuttle bus could be utilized to perform science experiments about our own world from the vantage of space. For launching missions to targets beyond Earth orbit, the shuttle postured engineering obstacles. One mission that introduced from the shuttle bus was Galileo, JPLs flagship mission to Jupiter, and its path to the launch pad would have plenty of unanticipated twists and turns.
Making use of unusual movie video in addition to the memories of the researchers and engineers who existed, “The Footsteps of Voyager” recounts the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune and the efforts to release Galileo, an objective that would end up being the first to orbit an external world.
JPL and the Space Age Video Series