NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report 18 April 2008

Mission: GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope)
Location: Astrotech payload processing facility
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7920-H
Launch Pad: 17-B
Launch Date: TBD (under assessment)

At Pad 17-B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Delta II second stage is planned to be hoisted atop the first stage on Monday. This week, work to complete the manufacturing, testing and evaluation of the new H-beam associated with the lifting of the second stage was completed.

Meanwhile, at the Astrotech payload processing facility, the GLAST Ku-band communications antenna was installed on Tuesday. Testing will begin on Sunday. End-to-end communications system testing is also scheduled for this weekend. Closeouts of the spacecraft thermal blankets continue. The star tracker sun shade installation is currently planned for next Wednesday.

Previous status reports are available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/2008