{"id":1530,"date":"2011-11-26T13:41:17","date_gmt":"2011-11-26T21:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2011-11-26T14:38:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T22:38:57","slug":"launching-mars-science-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/2011\/11\/26\/launching-mars-science-laboratory\/","title":{"rendered":"Launching: Mars Science Laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mars Science Laboratory (aka &#8220;Curiosity&#8221;) successfully left Earth this morning. The launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida was perfect:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"450\" height=\"315\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xTyWl8TPNBM?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"450\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xTyWl8TPNBM?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"450\" height=\"315\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/1QCNsKricls?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"450\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/1QCNsKricls?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>After a powered flight of almost 12 minutes, the second stage Centaur engine shut down as the vehicle reached a parking orbit at altitudes between 165 and 324 km above Earth. After coasting in orbit for around 21 minutes, the Centaur stage fired again &#8212; this time for about 8 minutes. The second burn lifted the vehicle out of Earth orbit and sent it on its way to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Mars Science Laboratory then separated from the Centaur engine. It has sent back signals indicating that everything on board is exactly as it should be. The eight-month journey to Mars is now underway. <a title=\"Gustav Holst - Mars -- The Bringer of War\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AGGlL1wexQk\" target=\"_blank\">Fade in the music<\/a>!\u00a0(Incidentally, one of my favorite pieces).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year I had a chance to say good-bye to <em>Curiosity<\/em> a few days before she left the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. (Read <a title=\"Goodbye Curiosity\" href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/2011\/06\/14\/goodbye-curiosity\/\">my account here<\/a>).\u00a0These videos show what happened since then.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"450\" height=\"315\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/HDXl_SOjUV0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"450\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/HDXl_SOjUV0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"450\" height=\"315\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mFnZParBQcg?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"450\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mFnZParBQcg?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<div id=\"apf_post_footer\">\n<h4>Related Articles:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3449\">A Space Poster With Mysterious Origins<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3428\">Did Rocket Pioneer Robert Goddard Ever Work On Mount Wilson?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"https:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3340\">RIP James Arthur Lovell Jr. (March 25, 1928 \u2013 August 7, 2025)<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3307\">The Moon Voyagers<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3208\">Size Comparison<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mars Science Laboratory (aka &#8220;Curiosity&#8221;) successfully left Earth this morning. The launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida was perfect: After a powered flight of almost 12 minutes, the second stage Centaur engine shut down as the vehicle reached a parking orbit at altitudes between 165 and 324 km above Earth. After coasting in orbit for around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-spaceflight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}