August 15, 2002

The SORCE Spacecraft is currently on schedule to complete Thermal Vac test activities in ~ 9 days. During this recent round of testing, some questionable behavior in some of the IM (Instrument Module) components has been noted. The TIM instrument appears to have an issue with one of the four shutter mechanisms (not consistently responding to open/close commanding). The SOLSTICE B instrument has exhibited some other than expected behavior in a number of grating drive scans. And, the MU experienced an unexplained spontaneous reset during recent overnight thermal transition testing. There was also some additional concern over some of the returned SIM data, but this is now believed to be operational errors/features associated with the current test track. All of these issues are currently being evaluated and in some cases special tests are being developed to further the understanding of what might be happening.