[img]http://www.ilslaunch.com/assets/Images/Media/ASTRA-1M-Blog/The-cake-blog-a1.jpg[/img] The morning of October 7th started out like any other day here in Baikonur, until we had a visitor at the Fili Hotel. A local owl flew in to tell us that a little birdie told him…Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was sharing his birthday today with our own Joelle! We have always known she was special! So, let us all eat cake…or as the French say, “quel chouette anniversaire!” For the rest of the day, the teams continued with all the stand-alone electrical testing and are on track for SC propellant loading on Thursday. The loading of the propellant is a critical step, in that it allows the load of highly hazardous chemicals into the tanks on board the SC. Everyone is currently preparing for the propellant loading meeting where we will review the readiness of all systems, organizations, processes and procedures for loading SC propellant.