Re:Jupiter Awaits Arrival of Juno
by zump on Monday June 27, 2016 @12:18AM
(#11984195)
NASA is getting better at PR. This is arriving July 4th!
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As did Mars pathfinder, 1997.
Maybe not so much a coincidence then? You'd think both of these orbital alignments are a little beyond our control. Or maybe there was enough fuel budget both times to get +/- a couple days to get the insertion dates we wanted.
Yes, there's usually enough flexibility to move things around a bit. Robert Farquhar, the man who planned the trajectory of ISEE-3 (the craft re-contacted by amateurs during an Earth flyby two years ago) enjoyed arranging his missions so that important milestones happened on the birthdays or anniversaries of friends and family.