NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report 1 June 2009

Mission: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and
Sensing Satellite (LRO/LCROSS)
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V
Launch Pad: Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Date: June 17, 2009
Launch Time: 3:51 p.m. EDT

Early Thursday morning, the United Launch Alliance team transported the LRO/LCROSS spacecraft from the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., to the Atlas vertical integration facility at Launch Complex 41. The lift was completed and LRO/LCROSS is attached to the Atlas booster.

Preparations were under way Friday for an integrated systems test scheduled to occur today. It is the major test performed after the spacecraft are mated to the Atlas V launch vehicle.

Mission: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-O)
Launch Vehicle: Delta IV
Launch Pad: Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Date: No Earlier Than June 26, 2009
Launch Window: TBD

At Launch Complex 37, Delta IV checkout and launch preparations continue. Tanker trucks delivered liquid hydrogen to storage tanks at the pad in preparation for launch.

The redesign of the linear shape charge, part of the launch vehicle flight termination system, is making good progress.

A partial tanking test to verify launch vehicle instrumentation will be performed today.

At the Astrotech Space Operations Facility, the GOES-O spacecraft is enclosed in the payload fairing. There is a cool dry purge within the fairing, and the spacecraft remains in a good state of health. A charge is also being maintained on the batteries. GOES-O will depart from Astrotech for Launch Complex 37 on June 7 and will be mated with the Delta IV rocket on June 8.

NASA has contracted with Boeing to build and launch the GOES-O spacecraft. The NASA Launch Services Program at Kennedy is supporting the launch in an advisory role. NASA spacecraft project management for GOES-O is the responsibility of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. After launch, once Boeing and NASA have completed on-orbit checkout and the spacecraft is operational, it will be turned over to NOAA.

Previous status reports are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/index.html