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Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

September 26, 2002

September 26, 2002

The repair and retest of the XPS, SOLSTICE A and SOLSTICE B instruments occurred during the week of September 16. The instruments have since all been returned to Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) (SOLSTICE A via SURF for a quick calibration check). On Monday evening, September 23rd, SOLSTICE B was remounted on the spacecraft. XPS was remounted Tuesday morning, September 24th. SOLSTICE A arrived late Tuesday evening and was remounted as a late shift activity. Currently, CPTs (Comprehensive Test Procedures) are being run on all of the IM instrumentation, as well as the spacecraft bus. This is scheduled to be completed by the end of the week. In addition, instrumentation alignment checks are being performed prior to final installation of all spacecraft blanketing. The spacecraft is in the final “button-up” phase in preparation for shipping to launch site facilities at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on 10/25. Upcoming OSC activities include a final solar array deployment test and a series of ground operations tests that will simulate post launch on orbit operations. A “hi-lite” this week was a visit to OSC by the new NASA Administrator, Sean O’keefe. He was touring the OSC spacecraft assembly area today and Gary Rottman (LASP SORCE Principal Investigator) had an opportunity to chat with him for a short bit about the SORCE spacecraft.

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