The instrument is on the spacecraft!!!
Here are two view of the instrument while undergoing final testing at the
Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. Part of the gold-coated primary
mirror is visible through the aperture in the first picture. The aperture
shade protects the telescope from sunlight and stray light. The inside of the
shade is coated with gold to reduce heat emissions (stray light for an
infrared telescope) and to provide a specular surface which reduces reflected
stray light from off-axis sources (like the earth).
The instrument arrived on the evening of May 19th. On the 21st we measured
the mass properties--the weight and center of mass. These photos show the
instrument on the Miller Table during the mass properties measurement.
Here is the installation of the instrument on the spacecraft on the evening
of the 21st.
Here are photos of the nearly complete WIRE spacecraft.
Thermal Balance and Thermal Vacuum Cycling tests are complete.
Latest Thermal Vacuum
Info
Graphics/photos of WIRE in
thermal vacuum chamber
Here are some scenes of WIRE personnel checking out the spacecraft during
thermal vacuum testing. In the first picture, Kent Mitterer controls the
spacecraft from the Test Conductor Workstation (TCW). The airborne support
equipment (ASE) rack to the left will fly on the L-1011 and power the
spacecraft during the captive carry phase of the Pegasus launch. (The Pegasus
is launched from the belly of an L-1011 flying at 39,000 feet.) Pedro Sevilla
monitors the instrument telemetry in the second picture. In the third
picture, Cindi Lewis monitors the health of the spacecraft computer. The
fourth picture is SDL's "orange dewar" which contains engineering focal plane
arrays. We used this dewar to check out the instrument electronics during
thermal vacuum. The last picture shows WIRE just after it was lifted out of
the vacuum chamber.
The wing for the WIRE's Pegasus rocket arrived at Vandenberg AFB in
California on April 22. Rocket assembly is progressing well.
This week we are measuring mass properties of the entire spacecraft.
Previous updates:
August 18, 1997
October 20, 1997
October 31, 1997
November 7, 1997
November 14, 1997
November 21, 1997
December 5, 1997
December 23, 1997
January 9, 1998
January 16, 1998
January 23, 1998
January 30, 1998
February 6, 1998
February 20, 1998
March 12, 1998
March 23, 1998
April 3, 1998
April 20, 1998
April 25, 1998