14 days until launch.
The secondary tank is almost full of hydrogen!
We started the hydrogen load one week later than planned. We had been waiting for a Delta mission to launch, since we need to evacuate our payload processing building during a Delta launch attempt (the Delta pad is near the Astrotech facility). But the Delta mission has a hardware problem, delaying their next attempt long enough for us to proceed with our hydrogen load. The hydrogen load requires continuous coverage in the payload processing facility. We recovered a couple of days in our schedule by performing flight simulation 4a before the hydrogen load, so we are now targeting a March 1st (Pacific Time) launch date.
The hydrogen load is going extremely well. The fill profile matches our previous fill almost exactly. The secondary tank should be full around 5:30pm PST. The primary tank load begins tomorrow, and it should be complete by Wednesday morning.
Here are two shots of the WIRE spacecraft mounted to its launch vehicle.
In the second photo, the first two stages of Pegasus are visible on the other
side of a contamination barrier, and the right half of the fairing is visible
in the corner behind the spacecraft.
Previous updates:
August 18, 1997 Structure and Cryostat progress
October 20, 1997 Structure qual and harness
installation
October 31, 1997 First powerup
November 7, 1997 Transponder integration, power
long functional
November 14, 1997 WIE and pyro
box integration
November 21, 1997 RF and ACS
integration
December 5, 1997 ACS testing
December 23, 1997 Work under spacecraft
January 9, 1998 ACS testing, gyro phasing
January 16, 1998 Instrument thermal simulator
January 23, 1998 Wire tracker
January 30, 1998 Build up solar array
February 6, 1998 Ops testing, remove transponder
February 20, 1998 Move to Building 7
March 12, 1998 Cleaning and Solar Array Testing
March 23, 1998 Prep for Environmental and into EMI
April 3, 1998 EMI and Vibration
April 20, 1998 Vibration and Shock
April 25, 1998 Thermal Balance
May 29, 1998 Instrument integration and Thermal
Vacuum
June 3, 1998 Spin Balance
June 17, 1998 Astrotech Tour and Magnetic
Calibration
June 30, 1998 QD qual, fairing fit
check, comprehensive testing
July 29, 1998
Ready to ship, QD testing
August 13, 1998 Launch delay
November 23, 1998 New launch date
January 19, 1999 WIRE at launch site
January 21, 1999 WIRE turnover/on Byrd Mobile
January 26, 1999 Instrument cooling, electrical
mate
January 29, 1999 Spacecraft on the rocket