While I was watching the launch via NASA TV they kept mentioning the Centaur... "fueling up the centaur... centaur is ready... go centaur... the centaur is deployed... the centaur this and that." You can hear it in the first few seconds and near the end of yesterday's launch.I'm like wha? The Centaur rocket is used in the second stage... it takes over when the earth barrier is broken through and goes the rest of the way. It has been a part of the space program since 1957, a year before NASA was created. They call it America's Workhorse in Space.
For this mission the Centaur will do two things... deliver the LRO to the moon and help the LCROSS smash into the moon so we can see if there is ice on the moon. Finding sources of water will be crucial if people are to live and work there. It will reach the moon on Tuesday.
8 hours of work... sketch, scan, clean up and paint.
