In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the integrated Mars Observer/Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) payload is ready for encapsulation in the Titan III nose fairing. The TOS booster maiden flight was dedicated to Thomas O. Paine, a former NASA administrator who strongly supported interplanetary exploration and was an early backer of the TOS program. Launched September 25, 1992 from the Kernedy Space Flight Center aboard a Titan III rocket and the TOS, the Mars Observer spacecraft was to be the first U.S. spacecraft to study Mars since the Viking missions 18 years prior. Unfortunately, the Mars Observer spacecraft fell silent just 3 days prior to entering orbit around Mars.
A páxina web da NASA proporciona un gran número de imaxes dos soviéticos/ da axencia rusa do espazo e outras axencias espaciais non norteamericanas. Esta non están necesariamente no dominio público.
Este ficheiro contén información adicional, probablemente engadida pola cámara dixital ou polo escáner usado para crear ou dixitalizar a imaxe. Se o ficheiro orixinal foi modificado, poida que algúns detalles non se reflictan no ficheiro modificado.