Installing NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Propulsion System - Timelapses

  • Released Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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The construction of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is fully underway now that the propulsion system is installed into the spacecraft bus. This video shows activity in the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center cleanroom, where technicians position the hexagonal spacecraft bus on the work platform called the Pantheon. The four fuel tanks on their deck are placed onto a specialized jack and lifted carefully into the spacecraft bus.

This whole system is built to supply the tiny thrusters hidden by red caps on the propulsion tank system. The tanks supply hydrazine fuel to the thrusters. The observatory uses the thrusters to maneuver into the correct orbit after launch and make large movements once operational.

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This is a complete time-lapse of the propulsion system integration divided into two parts.

Part 1 includes the spacecraft bus being lifted onto the work platform and the propulsion tanks being lifted onto a specialized lifting jack.

Part 2 shows the propulsion system being pushed under the work platform, and then the tanks are hoisted into the spacecraft bus.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.
This page was last updated on Friday, March 22, 2024 at 4:19 PM EDT.