On a very cold February 9th, at approximately 8:00am, the Proton rocket with TURKSAT-4A left Hall 111 via railcar heading for the Breeze M fueling station.  After two days, fueling is now complete and rollout to Launch Pad 24 will take place tomorrow.  Some team members took the opportunity to visit the Gagarin Museum today.  The museum is located within the Baikonur Cosmodrome and houses many artifacts including a Sputnik model, Yuri Gagarin’s uniform as well as a Russian Buran Space Shuttle replica.   

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Last night a large group witnessed the spectacular Soyuz launch watching as pitch black instantly turned to apparent daylight.  It was quite an exciting event!  And today an equally spectacular sight was the TURKSAT-4A AU mating to the Proton rocket to form the integrated launch vehicle or ILV.  After weeks of preparation the TURKSAT-4A spacecraft finally made its way by railcar to Hall 111 for integration.  We are getting closer to liftoff!

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With the TURKSAT-4A satellite fully encapsulated by the 2 payload fairing halves, the teams took the opportunity to sign the company logos.  This is always a grand event as team members can write a message to loved ones back home, are able to thank colleagues for their efforts up to this point or just sign their name to an object that will travel into space!  Also occurring tonight is an unmanned Soyuz launch.  A group will take the trip to view the launch. 

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Today we woke to find the trees had gotten a fresh coat of frost overnight, temporarily restoring beauty to our barren landscape.  Indoors, the TURKSAT-4A spacecraft was mated to the Breeze M upper stage and made horizontal in the tilter.  The entire unit was then encapsulated by the payload fairing and is now referred to the Ascent Unit (AU).  This stage also marks the last work day for several MELCO team members as their satellite is now safely encapsulated.  The next event on the launch campaign is for the AU to be transported to Hall 111 for mating to the Proton rocket.   

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It is hard to believe we have been here in Baikonur for only two weeks as so much has been accomplished.  It is not by chance, as launch campaigns are well planned down to the detailed daily activities. Turksat-4A processing is right on schedule with many operations taking place over the past few days.  The Breeze M underwent 2 days of high-pressure loading and has returned to Building 92A-50 awaiting Joint Operations to begin.  The Proton remains in Hall 111 as testing continues.  And the Turksat-4A spacecraft has continued its preparations including oxidizer loading and will soon be fueled.
 

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