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KSC Public Affairs Contact:
George Diller (fax 407-867-2692)
E-mail: George.Diller-1@ksc.nasa.gov
GOES-J/Atlas Centaur 77
Atlas 1 (May 19)
The RP-1 Atlas first stage fuel for the
AC-77 wet countdown dress rehearsal is being loaded aboard today. The
countdown will begin at begin at 5:55 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, May 3.
The gantry at Pad 36-B will be retracted at 8:30 a.m. Loading of the
cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will follow starting at 9:43
a.m. The T-0 time for simulated launch is 11:30 a.m.
At Astrotech, the GOES-J spacecraft was
fueled with its hydrazine attitude control propellant last Friday.
Mechanical close-outs were completed yesterday. The spacecraft will be
placed on the Atlas 1 payload adapter tomorrow and be encapsulated into
the nose fairing on Thursday. The spacecraft will leave Astrotech for
Launch Complex 36 at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 6, and will be
mated to the rocket starting at sunrise.
TDRS-G/IUS-26
STS-70/Discovery (June 8)
At 11 p.m. last night the TDRS-G Tracking
and Data Relay Satellite was moved the 10-mile distance from the
Vertical Processing Facility located in the KSC Industrial Area to Pad
39-B at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It arrived there at 2 a.m. this
morning and was then hoisted and installed into the payload changeout
room. After some state of health checks, TDRS-G will be fueled with its
hydrazine attitude control propellant. Then preparations will begin for
installing the payload into the orbiter which is scheduled to occur on
May 13.
Wake Shield Facility
STS-69/Endeavour (July 20)
In Hangar AE, the Wake Shield Facility
experiment integration and checkout is complete. Electrical testing
under vacuum is currently underway. The flight batteries will be
installed next Monday. The substrates for the growth of crystals will be
installed on May 12. The free flyer will be stacked onto the carrier May
15.
USML-2
STS-73/Columbia (Sept. 21)
The now completed experiment racks were
rolled into the Spacelab module on April 27. The module’s end cone is
being attached today. The electrical mates between the racks and the
module are also currently underway. The next test activity is the
interface verification test (IVT) between the experiment racks and the
Spacelab module to verify the electrical connections. It is scheduled
for May 18. |
