Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
On May 3, 2006, the STEREO observatories, designed and built by APL, arrived by truck at the Astrotech Spacecraft Processing Facility just outside NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final pre-launch checks.
Prior to their shipment to Florida, the spacecraft completed five months of space-environment tests at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md., and at APL. These tests simulated conditions the observatories will undergo during launch and their two-year space-based operations. Throughout the next few months, the twin observatories underwent final checks of the spacecraft systems and instruments before they were loaded onto the launch vehicle. Mission operations personnel and engineers rehearsed the launch countdown and participated in mission simulations of critical STEREO operations.
The final prelaunch checks included integration and test activities such as: deployment of the solar arrays and high-gain antennas, installation of the flight batteries, a mission simulation for each of the two observatories (also involving the Deep Space Network), and a spacecraft Comprehensive Performance Test, which is an overall test of the spacecraft systems and its instruments. The observatory propulsion system then underwent leak tests and fueling operations. Finally, the two observatories were vertically stacked in their launch configuration for spin-balance testing before mating with the upper-stage booster. These operations took approximately three months.
Both spacecraft were transported to the launch complex and loaded onto the Delta II approximately two weeks prior to launch. Mission operations personnel at APL began the final launch countdown 12 hours before launch. Launch occurred from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 17-B on Oct. 25, 2006, at 8:52 p.m. EDT.
View more images of launch preparations from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.
