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Inertial Upper Stage
After deployment from the space shuttle Discovery, the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Ulysses rockets away from Earth atop its upper stage booster in this scene from a computer animation of the STS-41 upper stage mission produced by the Boeing Company. The Boeing Defense & Space Group's Aerospace & Electronics division builds the two-stage, 17-foot long, 32,500-pound Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) rocket booster for the U.S. Air Force and NASA at the Boeing Space Center in Kent, Wash. Boeing created the Ulysses upper stage by adding a PAM-S (Payload Assist Module) solid rocket motor to serve as a third stage atop the standard IUS. From low-Earth orbit, this unique upper stage booster will launch Ulysses on its billion-mile journey to orbit the sun.
Photo Credit: Boeing image
Neg. #90-4970