After a couple of days of fueling it’s time to start the mating process. It takes several different teams to get through the next set of critical activities. So we started with a group meeting to ensure we were all on the same page. The team work paid off because the SC has been mated to the adapter, lifted onto the Breeze M and prepared for the encapsulation in the payload fairing (PLF).

One of the teams is the RUAG specialists who install the clampband, which holds the SC to the adapter. After the SC/adapter unit is mated to the upper stage, the whole assembly is tilted over horizontally. We all held our breath during the tilting because the EchoStar XIV SC is the heaviest to travel on Proton to date at over 14,000 pounds!