January 23, 2003

Operations to transport the integrated SORCE rocket and payload to the “hot pad” began at 4am Wednesday, January 22nd (see photos). The “hot pad”, or “skid strip”, is the area where the rocket is mounted to the OCA (Orbital Carrier Aircraft). Early transport was required in order to avoid heavy work-day traffic that starts to flow through the area around 6 am each morning. The convoy moved slowly taking approximately two hours to cover a distance that normally takes 10 minutes to drive when you’re not towing a large rocket. Actual arrival at the hot pad was approximately 6:30 am. Shortly after arrival, as the sun was starting to peak over the horizon, activities commenced to jockey the rocket into position under the “jacked up” OCA. The remainder of the morning, and into early afternoon, was spent in integrating the rocket to the OCA and doing final preps for the flight-to-launch on Saturday. Afternoon activities included Flight Readiness Test (FRT) operations involving the spacecraft only. All test results were nominal and the spacecraft is “good-to-go” for launch. Activities planned for Thursday, January 23rd, include a Combined Systems Test (CST) which is the final test operations activity leading up to the L -8 hour “GO-NO GO” pre-launch activities on Saturday, January 25th.