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Boeing Inertial Upper Stage

The Boeing-developed Inertial Upper Stage was an expendable two-stage solid-propellant upper stage used with Space Shuttle and Titan launch systems. A specially configured IUS transferred Chandra from Columbia's parking orbit toward its highly elliptical operational orbit.

Boeing Inertial Upper Stage
NASA/KSC · Stored JPEG conclusively matches NASA archive item KSC-99pp0618 (stored/public 1717x2617 SHA-256 d2258a1a9b98995e862b9a8ea8ae474c86a52cb184a49d8ec088ea7582daf087; authoritative NASA original 1717x2617 SHA-256 0b70abc1e7bba3a7b7ae1d968f2944ba6bb22c3307e3bf9288260fc51d474be1). A pixel comparison of the decoded JPEGs yielded MAE 1.03, RMSE 1.53, and Pearson correlation 0.999809, establishing the stored file as a re-encoded rendition of the authoritative original. NASA's archive metadata identifies KSC-99pp0618 as the June 1, 1999 preparation of an Inertial Upper Stage booster for the Chandra X-ray Observatory at Kennedy Space Center: https://images-api.nasa.gov/search?nasa_id=KSC-99pp0618. The matching Wikimedia Commons record identifies the source as KSC-99pp0618, author NASA, and the work as public domain in the United States, while preserving restrictions around NASA logos and recognizable persons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Preparation_of_an_Inertial_Upper_Stage.jpg. NASA's current Images and Media Usage Guidelines state that NASA content is generally not subject to U.S. copyright and may be used factually or informationally when NASA is acknowledged, while third-party material remains protected; commercial use must not imply NASA endorsement and NASA logos and identifiers are protected: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. This is an asset-level, conservative reuse basis and not a blanket endorsement or permission to use NASA branding. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
IUSSpace Shuttle Inertial Upper Stage
Family Name
Inertial Upper Stage
Full Name
Boeing Inertial Upper Stage
Status
retired
Type
rocket

Details

Description
The Boeing-developed Inertial Upper Stage was an expendable two-stage solid-propellant upper stage used with Space Shuttle and Titan launch systems. A specially configured IUS transferred Chandra from Columbia's parking orbit toward its highly elliptical operational orbit.
First Flight Year
1,982
Last Flight Year
2,004
Manufacturer
Operator
Rocket Specs
Reusability
expendable

Links

Official Url
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20000023158

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 17, 2026 at 01:15:24 UTC
Updated Time
July 23, 2026 at 02:03:06 UTC
Image
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Search Name
Boeing Inertial Upper Stage IUS Space Shuttle Inertial Upper Stage