SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center
321/867-2468

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MISSION: CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour)
LAUNCH VEHICLE: Delta II 7425
LAUNCH PAD: 17-A Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
LAUNCH DATE: July 1, 2002
LAUNCH WINDOW: 2:56:14 - 2:56:26 a.m. EDT

The Contour spacecraft arrived at KSC late on April 24. The following morning it was taken to NASA Spacecraft Assembly & Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2) in the KSC Industrial Area to begin preparations for launch. The flight batteries were installed and charged. Software was installed for four days of spacecraft performance testing which is currently underway. Some solar cells that were damaged during shipping of the spacecraft have been removed and replaced.

The Boeing Delta II launch vehicle second stage arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Monday, Apr. 1 and is undergoing checkout at Delta launch vehicle Hangar AO. The Delta first stage arrived at Cape Canaveral on Apr. 15 and is at Hangar M.

The Contour Mission Readiness Review will be held at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore on May 15.

At Space Launch Complex 17, erection of the Delta booster will begin on May 28. A pre-vehicle-on-stand (Pre-VOS) review is scheduled for May 21 at the Boeing facility in Huntington Beach, CA.