After launching many successful projects NASA now has almost completed all the environmental tests and launch preparations of its brand new project NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The windows will soon open and LADEE will launch on September 6, 2013.
In June after the safe arrival of LADEE observatory at NASA Wallops, the observatory started its final preparations and closeout of the project, which includes checking of the spacecraft’s alignment, checking whether the propulsion system is leak proof or not, inspection of solar panels, and conducting the final electrical tests.
The engineers in order to ensure whether the spacecraft is perfectly balanced for flight or not rotated it at high speed onto a spin table at about one revolution per second. This was done to measure any offsets during the spacecraft spin, and then time to time added small weights so that the spacecraft could be balanced. The propulsion tanks are loaded with fuel, oxidizer, and pressurant as soon as the spacecraft balanced dry. The engineers conducted the spin test with loads tanks again in order to check whether the spacecraft changed its balance or not. Both the tests went very well.
In the next step the engineers lifted the spacecraft onto the top of the rocket and spun the entire stack in order to check the balance on the fifth stage burn at the time of ascent. A number of explosive charges were installed before and after the spin balancing onto the LADEE spacecraft which during the mission removed the cover of one of the science instruments. The combination of all these tests made this mission pretty challenging for the researchers.
After completing all the tests, engineers onto the top of the rocket motor mounted the LADEE observatory and encapsulated by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, VA in the fairing of the United States Air Force’s Minotaur V launch vehicle. The spacecraft is then going to be hooked to an environmental control system that will keep it clean and dry and also let the cool gas flowing in and out the fairing. The combined LADEE with its fifth stage motor will then be removed from the clean room and kept outside all summer, on the launch pad. NASA is all ready to launch the LADEE on September 6, 2013 when the windows open.
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