There you have it….as Friday 27 May draws to a close, so does Day 1 of Joint Operations for the Intelsat 31 launch campaign.  Preparation for Day 1 of Joint Operations started the night before as the SSL mechanical team prepared and transferred the Intelsat 31 SC into H101 along with the necessary equipment to perform our operations seamlessly.

The SSL electrical team were first in the door at o’dark thirty to perform joint electrical checks with the BM.  Following not far behind were the SSL mechanical team on point and motivated to get started.  Once in H101 a plethora of operations took place prior to the actual lifting of the SC and mating with the KhSC Payload Adapter.

The remainder of the day was spent finalizing preparations prior to the lifting and mating with our Breeze-M.  It has been a day of multiple teams of specialists performing incredibly detail orientated work.

Saturday 28 May was Day 2 of Joint Operations and yes…you guessed it, another early kick-off for the day. Day 2 culminated in the AU (Ascent Unit) being titled into the horizontal position ready for Day 3 of joint operations where it will be encapsulated in the PLF (Payload Fairing) aka the top of the rocket.