Space Shuttle Centaur - The Rocket Upper Stage

Centaur, the venerable rocket upper stage would find a new home in 19 86. It had flown on several different configurations of the atlas and titan boosters but was needed for space shuttle orbiters payload bay. Centaur used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to generate massive amounts of energy that could unlock the solar system to robotic exploration. But hydro loc stages are incredibly difficult to work with as they require constant topping off and venting. And all these constraints ired extensive modification to the arbiter. The shuttle programe would get its first taste of just how difficult supporting centaur would be in a few months with the planned launch of s t s 61 f, carrying the ulysses ar probe