After a successful mating of the SC-PLA to the Breeze M, the sum of which is referred to as the Orbital Unit (OU), there was very little time to admire the handiwork as we moved right into payload fairing (PLF) encapsulation the very next morning. The first order of business required for encapsulation is the need to have the SC in a horizontal position. This is one of the more harrowing operations to witness. Here is the OU stack, SC fully loaded with propellant, coupled with the Breeze M upper stage, which is mounted to the tilt-over fixture. That is a whole lot of inches and a whole lot of pounds, supported only by the mounting base, and we have to rotate it from vertical to horizontal in order to install the payload fairing. No matter how many times one observes this operation, one cannot help but watch and comment that it is just not supposed to look like this. It can be quite nerve-wracking during these 30 minutes. It seems to get very quiet in Hall 101 while everything is underway, but the method once again proved true. The SC, Breeze M, PLA system and moved to horizontal just as they were supposed to do. It really is a spectacular sight to see.

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It is time to say goodbye to the SC, visually anyway, as the PLF is ready to be installed. With the SC horizontal and hovering above a rail track, the bottom half of the fairing is situated on a rail car below. It sits in a cradle and is hand cranked into position under the SC. Once that is in place, the upper half of the fairing is hoisted up by crane and positioned above the prone SC and lowered to mate with the bottom PLF half. Under the eyes of the watchful team from Orbital, KhSC’s operations were successful and the Intelsat-16 SC was officially encapsulated in preparation for its ride into orbit. This newly assembled configuration is now called the ascent unit (AU). Once the two PLF halves are secured, the team will spend two days performing electrical tests and verifying that, although encapsulated, it is still possible to communicate with the SC. The term “team” certainly applies in this case, as a veritable plethora of activities are ongoing while the Orbital folks and the Khrunichev teams work together performing pre-launch testing. Time now to mate the AU to the Proton launch vehicle! The fun continues…

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One of the least technical operations that we perform here is the signing of the PLF by the entire launch team. But it is fun to watch the team members take turns climbing up on to the catwalk, putting their personal touches on the fairing logos and then climbing back down. The biggest decisions are what to write, and who to dedicate the launch to: parents, children and loved ones of all sorts are named on the fairing as a tribute to them from the launch team members. It’s a great photo opportunity for the team. It is also one of the last things we do prior to mating the AU to the launch vehicle. It has been a long road for the Orbital Science’s team and their satellite, and it is at this point that they physically hand it over to the capable hands of our Russian teammates from Khrunichev.

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The “Consent to Load Propellants” meeting was held between Intelsat and Orbital Sciences. It’s a critical step, in that it allows the load of highly hazardous chemicals into the tanks on board the SC. It’s not an operation that you want to repeat or — in the worst case — reverse! After this review was completed, we held our Propellant Loading meeting where we reviewed the readiness of all systems, organizations, processes and procedures for loading SC propellants. Everyone agreed that we were ready, and the appropriate certificates were issued and presented to the KhSC program team. Orbital’s propellant team then loaded the hydrazine fuel onto the SC (no oxidizer will be used for this mission, as the Intelsat-16 SC will be injected directly into near-GSO). This operation, which took approximately eight hours, marks the completion of the propellant loading phase of SC preps. Kudos to the Intelsat and Orbital teams for an excellent operation! It all went smoothly and according to plan. Because the propellant loading is a hazardous operation, the building was cleared and the rest of the non-essential personnel spent the day relaxing. We will continue with some post-fueling testing of the SC, flight closeouts of all thermal blankets and removal of some Remove Before Flight (RBF) items over the next several days until the start of Joint Operations.

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Orbital’s specialists have verified that the SC is completely healthy, and our Intelsat customer provided a final review of all the stand-alone electrical testing results and pronounced the SC ready to proceed. Khrunichev specialists prepared the payload adapter (PLA) system on its stand in Hall 103A, where the SC was tested, for a “touch and go” fitcheck. To ensure that there are no problems with the mechanical interface of the SC with the adapter and electrical cabling, we perform this short fitcheck. After a successful fitcheck, the SC was moved to its fueling stand for the next step: loading propellants into the tanks inside the SC. In parallel with the SC electrical testing, the SC propellant loading team has been busy with all their checkouts and preparations. Everything is proceeding per the plan – a result of the last 12 months of preparation by Intelsat, Orbital Sciences, ILS and KhSC. Next step – SC propellant load

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On the night of 11 January, the SC in its container made its way on the train from the airport to the processing facility, referred to as 92A- 50. The main room of this building, known as Hall 101, is absolutely huge – more than large enough to accommodate all the train cars containing the SC and support equipment with room to spare for a soccer game if so inclined! The SC container was offloaded, placed on the floor of the hall, and all the associated equipment was placed in the areas needed to support the unpacking and testing of the SC. The SC is well protected within the container, so we left it there overnight. Early the next morning, the riggers came in and started the process of removing the SC from its container. This entails removing the lid, rotating the SC from horizontal to vertical, and using the crane to life it off its supports. The SC was moved to a portable dolly and rolled into Hall 103A – its home for the next 17 days. The Orbital Sciences team then got busy testing the Intelsat-16 SC in what is known as stand-alone operations. This is the time in the beginning of the launch campaign when the SC contractor work alone to test and verify that the SC is healthy, load propellants and configure the SC for launch. After all these steps are done and the SC is completely ready to go for launch, we start “joint operations” where the SC is integrated with the Proton LV. Right now, Orbital’s specialists are in the process of verifying that the SC is completely healthy before we proceed to the next step: a “touch and go” fitcheck.

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On a cool, crisp, sunny morning, Intelsat 16 team members eagerly boarded the bus that would take them to Yubileiny Airport to await the arrival of the Antonov, which was carrying the precious Intelsat 16 spacecraft. After a picture-perfect landing, the Antonov taxied into position for unloading, and the offload began immediately. Khrunichev worked with amazing efficiency. All people, supplies and the spacecraft (of course) were unloaded without incident in just a few hours. The spacecraft was moved to a rail car, which arrived at the processing hall around 10:00 that night. Many ILS and Orbital team members worked into the early hours of the morning to ensure safe transfer of the spacecraft into the processing hall. All spacecraft operations are proceeding nominally.

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Our resident weather man, determined that Thursday, January 14 would be a perfect day for a barbecue. The pavilion in front of the Fili was prepared with protection from the cold and wind, and then the fire pit was filled with huge logs of wood. Soon a roaring fire was available to warm your hands over. Volunteers from Pinkerton manned the Santa Maria grill for the most succulent beef tenderloin in all of Kazakhstan. Khrunichev was invited, the music was playing, and a good time was enjoyed by all. In addition, we surprised our newly promoted ILS Mission Manager with a huge cake! Way to go!

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The first ILS launch campaign of 2010 is underway. The Early Team set out on the 6th of January from Virginia to kick off the launch of the Intelsat 16 commercial communications satellite from Baikonur. After a long trip to Moscow, and with an early flight to Baikonur scheduled for the next morning, we all called it an early night. After breakfast, a drive through unusually deserted Moscow streets (it was the day after Russian Orthodox Christmas), and a very uneventful charter flight on a Tupolev Tu-134, the Early Team arrived safe and sound at Yubileiny Airfield on the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Then it was a 45 minute bus ride to the hotel (our home away from home for the next month), the mandatory Safety and Security Arrival briefing, dinner, and another early night for many of the team members. The next few days consisted of office setup and facility acceptance checks as we prepared for the arrival of the Intelsat 16 spacecraft.

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