NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report 4 September 2009

Mission: Space Tracking and Surveillance System – Demonstrators
Program (STSS-Demo)
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7920-10
Launch Pad: Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Date: No Earlier Than Sept. 17, 2009
Launch Window: 8 – 9 p.m. EDT

Prelaunch preparations at Pad 17B are going well and are on schedule. The Flight Program Verification took place Friday. This is an integrated electrical and mechanical test of the Delta II together with the STSS Demo payload that includes both countdown and flight event milestones.

The next major activity is the installation of the payload fairing around the STSS spacecraft next week on Sept. 9.

Spacecraft: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V-401
Launch Pad: Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Date: Feb. 3, 2010

The launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory is rescheduled to Feb. 3, 2010, to allow sufficient time to launch the other planned missions that are ahead of SDO on the Atlas V manifest.

On the evening of Sept. 2, a three-day SDO Launch/Mission Simulation came to a close. It began on Aug. 31 with a simulated launch, spacecraft separation from the Atlas V, solar array and antenna deployments, and a simulated contingency maneuver. The test was successful with only minor troubleshooting necessary.

Spacecraft: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7320
Launch Pad: SLC-2, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Launch Date: Dec. 7, 2009

At the Astrotech payload processing facility on north Vandenberg, the WISE spacecraft functional testing was successfully completed early this week as planned. Simulated launch pad operations tests were performed on Sept. 1. These are functional tests associated with launch day spacecraft flight system power on and final configuration for launch. All were successfully completed.

Build-up of the Delta II at Space Launch Complex 2 is scheduled to begin on Oct. 19 with hoisting of the first stage into the launcher.

Previous status reports are available at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/index.html