yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (04/04/89)
Payload Status Report
Kennedy Space Center
Monday, April 3, 1989
George Diller
Magellan (IUS-18)
The Magellan spacecraft with the attached Inertial Upper
Stage Booster was loaded into the payload bay of the Space
Shuttle Atlantis on March 25. Establishment of electrical
connections was completed on March 29. The Interface
Verification Test (IVT) to verify those connections will be done
this Tuesday, Apr. 4. Astronauts Mark Lee and Mary Cleave will
be on the flight deck of the Space Shuttle Atlantis participating
in this exercise.
The End-to-End test will also be performed later this week
on Saturday, Apr. 8. This exercise will verify the ability of
payload ground stations to receive data and send commands to
IUS/Magellan via the communications systems of the orbiter.
Participating in the test will be the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Ca., the Deep Space Network facilities at
Goldstone, Ca. and the MIL-71 station at KSC, the IUS facilities
of the Consolidated Space Test Center at Sunnyvale, Ca., Mission
Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Magellan
spacecraft ground control station at Hangar AO on Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station.
On Thursday, March 30, the Magellan Test Team completed a
Joint Integrated Simulation (JIS). Participating were many of
same team members who will be be involved in the End-to-End test
on Saturday. Also, all five STS-30 astronauts participated in
the JIS from the Space Shuttle flight simulator at JSC.
This is a problem solving simulation for the test team where
surprises are introduced for an immediate response and a
solution. This particular exercise invoked challenges ranging a
complete power failure at Magellan's ground control station at
KSC, to an earthquake at JPL in Pasadena. The goal for the team
is to deploy the spacecraft from Atlantis successfully despite
worst case hypotheticals.
Delta/COBE
Checkout of COBE's Delta 1 rocket at KSC has been completed.
The launch vehicle is now eroute by special truck to Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California. Arrival there was expected on
Saturday, Apr. 1.
Erection of the first stage on Pad SLC-2 West is scheduled
for Apr. 25. The second stage will hoisted for mating with the
first stage on approximately May 1, with the nine strap-on solid
rocket boosters expected to be attached the week of May 9.
Launch will be no earlier than July 20.