[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0511/14stereo/


The first spacecraft designed to capture 3-D "stereo" views of the sun and solar wind have been shipped from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., for their next round of pre-launch tests.

http://www.stereo.jhuapl.edu/

[ljk4-1]

06.09.06

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

STATUS REPORT: ELV-060906

EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE STATUS REPORT

Mission: STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: July 22, 2006
Launch Times: 3:11 - 3:13 p.m. and 4:19 - 4:34 p.m. EDT

Testing and prelaunch processing of STEREO continue on schedule. Deep
Space Network spacecraft compatibility testing is under way. Launch
and mission simulation exercises are also being performed. Upcoming
next week is further thermal blanket installation and preparations
for attaching the solar arrays. STEREO is scheduled to be transported
to Launch Complex 17 on July 11 to be mated to the Boeing Delta II
rocket.

The first stage of the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B was erected on June
2. The first of three sets of three solid rocket boosters were
attached on June 5. At this time, the Delta II second stage is
scheduled to be hoisted into position and mated to the first stage on
June 20. The crew will raise the 10-foot fairing into the pad clean
room on June 21.

For information about the STEREO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stereo

Previous status reports are available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2006

[disownedsky]

For information about the STEREO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stereo

Previous status reports are available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2006

Or:
http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/

APL (a lab of Johns Hopkins University) designed and built the two spacecraft. An interesting side note, they carry very similar RAD 750 based electronics to the MESSENGER mission (also built by APL), except that they are single-string and don't have MESSENGER's Fault Protection Processor.

[djellison]

they carry very similar RAD 750 based electronics to the MESSENGER mission (also built by APL), except that they are single-string and don't have MESSENGER's Fault Protection Processor.

MER like redundency in that there's two spacecraft I suppose.

Looking at the Orbit sims (and I'm not sure how accurate they are w.r.t. SKM's or TCM's ) - by something like 2010, they'll be on opposite sides of the sun from one another, and by 2012 - they'll be in almost 120 degree seperation around the sun, with the Earth at the third point, abnd by 2014, they'd overtake one another not far from a solar conjunction ...now THAT is looking in Stereo

I'm looking forward to the imagery - approx 3x better resolution than SOHO's imagers.

Doug