The HabForum

Ok guys I got a question for you all. Behind HAB2 there is an engine. Not the one underneath the shuttle but the one right behind HAB2. Does anyone know what it's called or what it was used in? Anyone else notice that at night the thing made noise?

Erin,
The engine behind of Hab2 was used to propell part of a saturn rocket if i remember correctly. The noise is a compressor (sp). Anyways it has to be pressurized because the skin of it (the whole silver part) is only as thick as dime!! I talk to a counselor online who will probably know what rocket it was if you really want to know let me know. Hope that was helpful I have a great pic of it i wish i could post it oh well

Now that i think about it the engine might have been a jupiter c. I dunno traveler couldnt remember either. This is gonna drive me crazy lol.

If its the big silver one not under pathfinder but near it i believe it was a payload boost module. In the early days of the shuttle program they had an idea for a liquid fueled booster to allow the shuttle to put sattelites into a higher orbit than it could normally so. This module would have been launched with a connected satelite from the shuttles cargo bay. Thankfully this never happened because by all accounts it most likely would have ended in disaster. Most engineers thought it was the stupidist idea anyone had ever come up with and it probably would have been. One thing we can thank the challenger accident for is preventing this idea from ever flying in space. I could be wrong but i believe thats what the stage is. Seems ti me someone had told me that years ago then another friend who is extremely knowledgable about the space program was discussing it with me one night. Richasi if you have a picture send me a copy and ill take it to my friend and see if he knows for sure.

Ooo, let me think. Is it out on the fringes of the Shuttle Park on the side of Hab 2? If so, I think I got a picture of it in 1995. Let me know and I'll scan that and pass it along.

Well if anyone has a picture of it send it to me and i can probalby find out what it is.

Ok if your talking about the one on the edge of the shuttle park thats mainly silver in color i did some research and found out what it is. Its a Centaur-G upper stage. Although its not the exact one i talked about above that was to be used for the shuttle it is essentially the same one. This one is ussualy combined with the large Titan boosters for the upper stages and is often used for planetary probes such as some of the recent ones to mars. The reason the centaur upper stage was cut from the shuttle program was that after the challenger accident they decided it would be too risky to launch a fully fueled liquid fueled rocket stage in the orbiters cargo bay and the program was cut before it ever got to fly.

Yes...this is more-or-less what it is...from right off the plaque in Space Shuttle Park:
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NASA CENTAUR G-PRIME
HIGH-ENERGY UPPER STAGE

This is a Centaur G-Prime mock-up, designed to be carried aboard the Space Shuttle. Once orbit was achieved, the Centaur would be deployed and ignited to send probes on a deep space missions. However, because it was liquid hydrogen-powered, such plans were canceled following the January, 1986 Challenger mishap. The Centaur was originally designed as an upper stage for the Atlas rocket. With more than twice the thrust of an Agena stage, the Centaur made it possible to boost the Surveyor lunar landing spacecraft in the 1960s. In 1973, it boosted Mariner X on a Venus-Mercury flyby mission. The first U.S. liquid hydrogen-powered vehicle, the Centaur was powered by two Pratt & Whitney engines. The Centaur's skin thickness was increased to support heavier payloads. Like the Atlas in Rocket Park, this vehicle must be kept pressurized.

Length: 42.6ft (13m)
Diameter: 9.8ft (3m)
Weight: 37,800 lbs (168,000N)
Thrust: Atlas version 30,000 lbs (133,500N)
Propellant: liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen

Contractors:
General Dynamics Pratt & Whitney (propulsion)

Exhibit:
Courtesy of General Dynamics and NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.

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...sorry you asked

Thanks Vincent thats a good bit of info. I didnt have anything that was short and simple to quote from. I can see why they dumped the idea though. Imagine trying to make an abort in an emergency besides making the nearly impossible maneuvers required for most aborts you would have to dump the fuel of the centaur which would require extra plumbing. If a centaur had been aboard challenger when it exploded its fuel most likely would have also ignited and probably destroyed most of the orbiter making the amount of recovery that was acomplished close to impossible.