Spacecraft Assembly

Completing Integration Phase

May 1, 2008

We completed testing with the Deep Space Network last week, and this week we are testing with our primary ground station, White Sands 1. These tests ensure that we can properly communicate with our spacecraft during flight. During the evening shifts, the blanket technicians have been designing the thermal blankets that will protect the orbiter from the temperature extremes in lunar orbit.

During the LOLA safe-to-mate electrical tests, we discovered a problem with the signal levels on the instrument's data interface. The LOLA team tracked down the problem to a polarity reversal on a transformer. The circuit is already corrected, and we are running the electronics box through some workmanship testing to make sure everything is OK. Most of the instrument, including the laser, remained on the spacecraft. We should have the entire instrument running again next week.

The solar array gimbal will be out of its thermal vacuum testing tomorrow, and it will meet up with the solar panels for some integrated testing. The High-Gain Antenna System blankets are installed. We are working through some interference issues with the blankets - we want to make sure that everything moves freely. The HGAS should be ready for thermal vacuum testing next week. LROC and Mini-RF are both nearly finished with their thermal vacuum testing.

The LRO team is hard at work all around the Orbiter.

May 14, 2008

All of the instruments are on the Orbiter! LROC arrived on May 9th, and it is now installed. The Mini-RF antenna is not yet installed, but the electronics are on the avionics panel and have been connected to the Orbiter electronics. We have a lot of testing ahead of us, but the integration phase is nearly complete. Everything is now at Goddard Space Flight Center. The Solar Array System and the High-Gain Antenna System are the last two components to integrate. SAS final assembly is underway, and the HGAS is in the thermal vacuum chamber undergoing its final testing.

LRO is in the clean room after LROC integration.

  Instrument Installations | Solar Array and High-Gain Antenna