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“Explosion serves as evidence to win lawsuit allowing multi-billion-dollar space mission to fly.”
Cassini was destined to explore Saturn and its moons, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) was mired in lawsuits and protests that inhibited the launch of nuclear-powered spacecraft. In August of 1995, Dr. Claude Merrill at the Rocket Propulsion Lab (a precursor to the AFRL Rocket Lab) and his team conducted a steel plate impact test on a Titan IV solid rocket motor-upgrade unit (SRMU) booster. A cylinder of Titan propellant was impacted by a 1250 lb. steel plate at ~900 ft/sec. These test conditions were beyond the projected ground impact of a crash. The test results gave NASA data proving the shock was less than needed to break up the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) that would power the Cassini. When the court heard the suit against the Cassini program, the judge ruled for NASA.
| Date Taken: | 09.06.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2024 07:20 |
| Story ID: | 480265 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 383 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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