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Preparing for Deployment Tests

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The high-gain antenna for one of the twin STEREO observatories is being prepared for deployment testing, which emulates how the antenna and its associated mechanisms will work once in space.

While inside the launch vehicle (with their solar arrays folded) for their ride into space, each observatory is about the size of a large, old-fashioned wooden desk. After the spacecraft separate from the launch vehicle and their solar arrays are opened or deployed in space, each observatory is about the length of a large school bus.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory