NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report 29 June 2005

Mission: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Launch Vehicle: Lockheed Martin Atlas V 401
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station (CCAFS), Fla.
Launch Date: August 10, 2005
Launch Window: 7:53:58 to 9:53:58 a.m. (EDT)

Power-on testing continues to go well. The high-gain antenna was installed on June 24. The solar arrays have been cleaned, inspected and installed. This week, the solar arrays will be deployed, inspected and stowed for launch.

The Centaur upper stage for the Atlas V is at the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at SLC-41. It was hoisted atop the Atlas stage to begin checkout.

The Launch Vehicle Readiness Test continues. A countdown wet dress rehearsal with the launch vehicle fully fueled is scheduled for early July.

The MRO will be transported from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at KSC to the VIF in late July. It will join the Atlas V for the final phase of launch preparations. The spacecraft will undergo a functional test, a final week of integrated testing and closeouts.

The MRO mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and will provide launch services for the mission with International Launch Services.

Mission: Cloud-Aerosol Lidar & Infrared Pathfinder Satellite
Observation and CloudSat (CALIPSO/CloudSat)
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II 7420 DPAF
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC2), Vandenberg Air
Force Base (VAFB), Calif.
Launch Date: No Earlier Than August 22, 2005

CloudSat completed battery reconditioning late Monday. Technicians are also performing some additional spacecraft testing. Stacking of the Boeing Delta II at SLC-2 and attachment of the four strap-on solid rocket boosters is complete.