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Fit check mania...
Jul. 7th, 2008 08:09 pmI got my first glimpse of the satellite this afternoon. It's pretty big - perhaps the largest I've seen yet - its shape suggesting a shortened school bus set on its back door. On what would be the roof of the bus is some kind of spring-loaded structure that, folded up the way it is, reminds me of a huge Gatling gun. Technicians were flitting around the satellite, on the ground and on cherry-pickers, touching it only with latex-covered hands and in general, treating it like a gigantic fragile vase.
My assignment today involved supporting what's called a "fit check," which actually involves quite a bit more than making sure that parts will mate. There was a pretty ambitious program scheduled for the check, but in the end, the planned check, which was to include electrical testing, mounting of the spacecraft onto the payload adapter, making the requisite electrical connections, and sending a command through the connections got only as far as the first step, with the rest postponed until tomorrow because the French team needed to devote all of its effort into buttoning up the container, which must be shipped to the airport for departure tomorrow.
The direct effect on my life of this change was not having to work until 10 pm tonight, which makes me a happy camper. Tomorrow, I'm not scheduled to go into work until 1 pm. This continues to be good, as my alarm clock is well and truly kaput (it finally went off, for about 10 seconds, 20 minutes after the set time).
In other news, there is something about the office network that the Eee does not like. I suspect it has something to do with the difference between IPv4 and IPv6, which is something, alas, that I do not as yet understand. Unfortunately, there was no time to research the issue today, nor have I had an opportunity to get a local dialup account set up. (As it was, I only got my office login today, before going downstairs to support the fit check.)
Cheers...
My assignment today involved supporting what's called a "fit check," which actually involves quite a bit more than making sure that parts will mate. There was a pretty ambitious program scheduled for the check, but in the end, the planned check, which was to include electrical testing, mounting of the spacecraft onto the payload adapter, making the requisite electrical connections, and sending a command through the connections got only as far as the first step, with the rest postponed until tomorrow because the French team needed to devote all of its effort into buttoning up the container, which must be shipped to the airport for departure tomorrow.
The direct effect on my life of this change was not having to work until 10 pm tonight, which makes me a happy camper. Tomorrow, I'm not scheduled to go into work until 1 pm. This continues to be good, as my alarm clock is well and truly kaput (it finally went off, for about 10 seconds, 20 minutes after the set time).
In other news, there is something about the office network that the Eee does not like. I suspect it has something to do with the difference between IPv4 and IPv6, which is something, alas, that I do not as yet understand. Unfortunately, there was no time to research the issue today, nor have I had an opportunity to get a local dialup account set up. (As it was, I only got my office login today, before going downstairs to support the fit check.)
Cheers...
