Joint operations are well underway!  The first day of joint operations was 17 April.  All of the teams brought their “A” game, and worked together like a well-oiled machine. A lot of major operations have taken place in the last few days; from transfer of the fueled SC from Hall 103A to Hall 101, SC mating with the payload adapter (PLA), and then mating with the Breeze-M.  From there the (SC+PLA+BM) which is now called an Orbital Unit (OU) goes from vertical to horizontal via the tilter.  The titling of the OU is one of the awe inspiring operations to witness.  Great job by all involved.
Next up on our milestones is Breeze M fueling but before then the teams will encapsulate the OU in the Payload fairing (PLF), transfer the OU via railcar from Hall 101 to Hall 111 and then mate the OU with the rest of the rocket.  All the while both the SC and LV are continually tested to ensure that everything is nominal and falls within the required specifications.

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As usual the Boeing Propulsion team and accompanying support crews brought their “A” game for the fueling operations.  With early starts and long days the team has successfully loaded both propellant components into the Centenario SC.  Due to the hazardous nature of the operations, all non-essential personnel were relocated to the hotels and had two days of down time.  Those team members lucky enough to have down time took the opportunity to head to town to do shopping and try out some of the local restaurants. Others remained hard at work from the hotels, conducting daily meetings, producing reports, ensuring launch campaign operations were moving forward and on target. Typically, to celebrate the successful completion of fueling, a good old fashioned American BBQ is held to salute the team for a job well done unfortunately,  Mother Nature had other ideas for the weather so the celebratory bbq will be held later this week.

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