Techs Prepare Data Relay Satellite For Jan. 23 Launch
By Space Coast Daily // December 20, 2013
payload fairing TO begin JAN. 2 AT Astrotech
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Technicians are loading monomethylhydrazine fuel into the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite L (TDRS-L) spacecraft today.
This concludes the propellant loading operations that have been under way this week at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla.
Payload test team members from The Boeing Company and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will secure TDRS-L so that next week they can return home for the holidays.
Work to prepare TDRS-L for encapsulation into the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing will begin when operations resume at Astrotech on Jan. 2.
LIFTOFF SET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION
Liftoff is targeted for the opening of a 40-minute launch window at 9:05 p.m. EST Jan. 23 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
TDRS-L will join NASA’s network of satellites to relay communications between the agency’s Earth-orbiting spacecraft including the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and a number of Earth-orbiting observatories.