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Fuel loading, day 1...
May. 18th, 2010 03:47 pmToday has largely been a repeat of Saturday, starting with a "walkdown" of the facility to make sure everything was in order before starting to load fuel aboard the spacecraft. The "dynamic" part of today's loading is complete. By this time tomorrow, the satellite will be fully loaded with propellant.
The propellant aboard the spacecraft plays no role in delivering the satellite into orbit; that's the job of the Proton launch vehicle, with which the satellite will be integrated, during a process that will start Thursday, when the satellite will be mated to a so-called "adapter system."
Instead, the propellant on the spacecraft will allow the satellite to maintain a specific position in geosynchronous orbit, a process known as stationkeeping. Sometimes, propellant must be consumed for other purposes, as with the AMC-11 satellite's movement to avoid potential interference from the Galaxi-15 "zombiesat," that appears to have decided to wander off-station for no explicable reason.
Most of the work since the satellite's arrival has been of the nature of winding a clock, except that instead of tightening a spring, the satellite has been loaded with various gases and liquids that will enable it to release energy in small spurts, from time to time, using relatively small quantities of propellant.
The radio has just announced an end to the day's activities, which means the Russian support is going home soon, which means that the interpreters supporting propellant loading (Olga and I) will also be going home soon.
Cheers...
The propellant aboard the spacecraft plays no role in delivering the satellite into orbit; that's the job of the Proton launch vehicle, with which the satellite will be integrated, during a process that will start Thursday, when the satellite will be mated to a so-called "adapter system."
Instead, the propellant on the spacecraft will allow the satellite to maintain a specific position in geosynchronous orbit, a process known as stationkeeping. Sometimes, propellant must be consumed for other purposes, as with the AMC-11 satellite's movement to avoid potential interference from the Galaxi-15 "zombiesat," that appears to have decided to wander off-station for no explicable reason.
Most of the work since the satellite's arrival has been of the nature of winding a clock, except that instead of tightening a spring, the satellite has been loaded with various gases and liquids that will enable it to release energy in small spurts, from time to time, using relatively small quantities of propellant.
The radio has just announced an end to the day's activities, which means the Russian support is going home soon, which means that the interpreters supporting propellant loading (Olga and I) will also be going home soon.
Cheers...
