Aliveness Test Successfully Completed!

We successfully ran the Launch Day Aliveness Test in the real launch configuration. We had a problem with the Solar Array Simulator but were able to work around it. All subsystems reported nominal operation. We received the EELV interleaved data and ran on internal power for a short time.

We are still on track for a 5am start on Monday to run the Aliveness test as part of the vehicle integrated system test (IST). I will update the blog if anything changes and send out e-mail.

Aliveness Test Revisited: Sat 5/30 8:30am

We found a bad GSE cable which prevented us from running the Aliveness test.
We replaced it and checked it out the command link. All's well now.

We will give it another shot tomorrow at 8:30am. Those supporting the test, please be on console at 8:30am.

What we had was a failure to communicate

After a long day and night of troubleshooting the cause of our inability to send commands to the spacecraft atop the rocket via the umbilical hard-line was traced to a damaged PVAN LRO EGSE timing cable with a intermittent shield-ground connection. Tomorrow we will resume our planned spacecraft testing in preparation for Monday's IST testing. So we're back in the saddle, although a bit tired....

More Pictures!

More pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Photos courtesy of Mike Golob.

LRO Moves to the Launch Pad

At about 2am Thursday morning the LRO\LCROSS payload (in the Atlas Rocket Fairing) began the slow trip (~5 hours at 10mph) to the launch pad. As of about 9:30am the payload had been stacked and attached to the top of the Atlas Rocket.

The Bug that Ate LRO

We have to amuse ourselves somehow... Yes, the bug is real. (No animals were harmed in the making of this photo).