Orbital’s specialists have verified that the SC is completely healthy, and our Intelsat customer provided a final review of all the stand-alone electrical testing results and pronounced the SC ready to proceed. Khrunichev specialists prepared the payload adapter (PLA) system on its stand in Hall 103A, where the SC was tested, for a “touch and go” fitcheck. To ensure that there are no problems with the mechanical interface of the SC with the adapter and electrical cabling, we perform this short fitcheck. After a successful fitcheck, the SC was moved to its fueling stand for the next step: loading propellants into the tanks inside the SC. In parallel with the SC electrical testing, the SC propellant loading team has been busy with all their checkouts and preparations. Everything is proceeding per the plan – a result of the last 12 months of preparation by Intelsat, Orbital Sciences, ILS and KhSC. Next step – SC propellant load
01 Feb 2010