Mission: Space Tracking and Surveillance System – Demonstrators Program (STSS-Demo)
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7920-10
Launch Pad: Launch Pad 17 B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Date: Sept. 15, 2009
Launch Window: 8:43 – 9:43 p.m. EDT
At Pad B on Launch Complex 17, liquid oxygen leak checks of the first stage are scheduled next week on July 20. For this test, the first stage will be filled with liquid oxygen during a simulated countdown.
At the pad the following day, July 21, a simulated flight test will be conducted. This is an electrical and mechanical test of the Delta II that exercises all of the launch vehicle systems in the same manner as will occur during powered flight.
Mission: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V-401
Launch Pad: Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Timeframe: November
The SDO spacecraft arrived at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility near the Kennedy Space Center in late afternoon July 9. In the airlock the following day, the lid of the shipping container was removed. On July 11, the spacecraft was rotated from the horizontal to vertical configuration and hoisted onto a work dolly. It was then moved from the airlock into the clean room. On July 13, the protective wrapping was removed from around SDO to begin the spacecraft processing.
The high-gain communications antenna was lowered to horizontal on July 15, providing access to the spacecraft’s battery compartment. The flight battery was installed later that day and electrical connections are now under way.
Previous status reports are available at:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/index.html
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George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller@nasa.gov