Starts to campaigns are always a flurry of activity from getting acquainted to the hotels, figuring out the transportation to and from 92A50, overcoming jet-lag due to time zone changes and making sure that we are all on-point for the major milestones that occur soon after our arrival.  Our initial operation is a fitcheck that occurs between the SCM’s SC and KhSC Adapter System before the hardware and teams continue with respective stand-alone operations in Hall 101 and H103A.

Saturday 21 Nov 15, was another early start.  The Airbus team and supporting personnel headed to 92A50 to prepare for the E9B fitcheck.  To have a fitcheck, one has to have a SC available and prepared for the joint operation. To accomplish this, the Airbus team worked with a resolute synchronicity (learned from years of working together) to perform multiple operations to have the SC ready and waiting to start four hours early!  In the world that we work in, the Airbus teams’ accomplishment is nothing short of phenomenal!

KhSC and RUAG who provide and work on the Adapter System were on point with their hardware preparations and readiness as we received a resounding “da” ("Yes" in Russian) when asked during our daily meeting if they could start the fitcheck operation early.

After a pre-task briefing to introduce the teams, assigned team leaders and to ensure that all personnel actually involved in the operations were on the same page, the fitcheck was performed like clockwork. Meticulous attention to detail, personnel available at the right times for quality checks/verifications, ensured that the E9B fitcheck was a resounding success!

The final operation of the day performed after the fitcheck and demating of hardware was to transfer the SC from H101 to H103 in preparation for stand-alone operations.  Final operation completed smoothly and efficiently