http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0511/14stereo/


The first spacecraft designed to capture 3-D "stereo" views of the sun and solar wind have been shipped from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., for their next round of pre-launch tests.

http://www.stereo.jhuapl.edu/

And the launch has now been postponed to May 26.

Launch is now set for June 24, 2006:

Spaceflight:

* NASA's STEREO Probes Weather Temperature Extremes

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/06013...reo_update.html

A set of spacecraft twins destined to stare at the Sun is alternately baking and
freezing in a preflight test.

Should be June 23 at 3:30pm. I've put in a request for the windows (the current one now targetted is June 23 to July 7). STEREO is a very interesting mission in terms of its orbital dance to get into position and the launch windows being based on the moons position. They have some neat Quicktimes tracing out the paths.

I supported the STEREO mission for a while. One of my coworkers had the full-time job of working out how to get the spacecraft in the desired orbits based on each of the various possible launch dates.

I hope they will allow public access to the images in the way the LASCO images are available from SOHO.

I've seen some simulations of the data expected from STEREO and the 3D images/movies of prominences etc. are going to be awsome!

Really looking forward to this mission!

James

Looks like launch of STEREO has been pushed back again, now July 22.

NASA STEREO Arrives in Florida to Begin Launch Preparations

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=19765

"NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft arrived
today at Astrotech, a payload processing facility near Kennedy Space Center
in Florida, to begin preparations and final testing for launch.

Liftoff will occur aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Complex 17 on
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the summer."

05.12.06

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-3749

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

STATUS REPORT: ELV-051206

EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE STATUS REPORT

Mission: Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)

Launch Site: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: July 22, 2006
Launch Time: 3:11 - 3:13 p.m. and 4:19 - 4:34 p.m. EDT

Technicians completed state-of-health testing of the two STEREO
spacecraft this week, following their May 3 arrival in Florida.
Individual system checkout is under way.

The STEREO flight batteries are scheduled to be installed next week.
The build-up of the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B is scheduled to begin
during the last week of May.

For previous status reports, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2006

STEREO will use "3D" vision to build a global picture of the sun and
its influences. For more information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stereo

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

05.19.06

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-3749

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

STATUS REPORT: ELV-051906

EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE STATUS REPORT

Mission: Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)
Launch Site: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: July 22, 2006
Launch Times: 3:11 - 3:13 p.m. and 4:19 - 4:34 p.m. EDT

Technicians are testing individual STEREO systems on both the "A" and
"B" spacecraft. The flight battery for spacecraft A was installed
this week. Technicians are expected to install the battery for
spacecraft B next week. In addition to testing, upcoming work planned
over the next few weeks includes solar array installation and
integration of the high-gain communications antenna.

The build-up of the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B is currently scheduled
to begin on June 1 with the first stage. Pad workers will start to
erect the nine solid rocket boosters on June 2. The second stage will
be hoisted into position and mated to the first stage on June 20. The
crew will raise the 10-foot fairing into the pad clean room on June
21.

For previous status reports, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2006

STEREO will use "3D" vision to build a global picture of the sun and
the heliosphere and study the sun's influence on Earth. For more
information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stereo

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

06.09.06

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

STATUS REPORT: ELV-060906

EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE STATUS REPORT

Mission: STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: July 22, 2006
Launch Times: 3:11 - 3:13 p.m. and 4:19 - 4:34 p.m. EDT

Testing and prelaunch processing of STEREO continue on schedule. Deep
Space Network spacecraft compatibility testing is under way. Launch
and mission simulation exercises are also being performed. Upcoming
next week is further thermal blanket installation and preparations
for attaching the solar arrays. STEREO is scheduled to be transported
to Launch Complex 17 on July 11 to be mated to the Boeing Delta II
rocket.

The first stage of the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B was erected on June
2. The first of three sets of three solid rocket boosters were
attached on June 5. At this time, the Delta II second stage is
scheduled to be hoisted into position and mated to the first stage on
June 20. The crew will raise the 10-foot fairing into the pad clean
room on June 21.

For information about the STEREO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stereo

Previous status reports are available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2006

STEREO footage via the KSC Video Feeds...

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countd.../video45lh.html

Or:
http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/

APL (a lab of Johns Hopkins University) designed and built the two spacecraft. An interesting side note, they carry very similar RAD 750 based electronics to the MESSENGER mission (also built by APL), except that they are single-string and don't have MESSENGER's Fault Protection Processor.

MER like redundency in that there's two spacecraft I suppose.

Looking at the Orbit sims (and I'm not sure how accurate they are w.r.t. SKM's or TCM's ) - by something like 2010, they'll be on opposite sides of the sun from one another, and by 2012 - they'll be in almost 120 degree seperation around the sun, with the Earth at the third point, abnd by 2014, they'd overtake one another not far from a solar conjunction ...now THAT is looking in Stereo

I'm looking forward to the imagery - approx 3x better resolution than SOHO's imagers.

Doug

Unlike MER, both spacecraft are required to complete the mission objectives. After all, the mission name isn't MONO

True - but you still get 'something', even if it's not the full mission objectives - one could rescue something from a mixture of SOHO + One stereo spacecraft perhaps.

Doug

The Stereo orbit would be very complicated with many Moon and Earth fly-by, so its path around the sun would not be a curviline straight line. I seems that there will be two spacecraft brothers Stereo? Ones will be placed at about 22 degree ahead and the other will be lagging 22 degree from Earth? But, I realized that it is not so. There will be only one spacecraft Stereo taking the advantage of Moon gravity to use a series of lunar swingbys to redirect the spacecraft ahead and behind of Earth.



Rodolfo

Yup - two spacecraft launched together that separate after launch, and then they both use Lunar flybys - one a month after the other, to chuck one ahead of the Earth, and one behind.

Doug

Oppsss, NASA is getting toys even most sophisticated to play with! It is seen that NASA is getting a mastery of fly-by to any celestial bodies.

Rodolfo

According to the updated STEREO site, the launch is now scheduled for August 1.

Off to the next window, August 20th.

Your photography is stunning. Very slick work.

Thanks...

Aug 31 at the earliest now as they check the Delta second stage for leaks.

Once again postponed, STEREO is now slated for the next window which opens September 18th.

Yet again:

STATUS REPORT: ELV-090106


Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report

Mission: STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: No earlier than Oct. 18, 2006
Launch Time: TBD

A decision was made to remove the STEREO second stage from the launch vehicle and perform inspection from inside the propellant tank to verify it is structurally sound for flight.

The launch of STEREO is now targeted for no earlier than Oct. 18. An electrical checkout of the vehicle is under way due to lightning strikes within a one-third mile radius of Complex 17 during the passing of Tropical Storm Ernesto.

The STEREO observatories remain at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility. Today technicians removed the transportation canister from around the payload to begin the process of reconditioning the batteries and preparing for the storage period (currently about 30 days). The twin spacecraft will remain in storage until the necessary course of action for the Delta II can be more clearly defined. There was no effect on the STEREO spacecraft from Tropical Storm Ernesto.

Another problem that Stereo spacecraft is facing: Boeing engineers at the firm’s Decatur, Ala., rocket-manufacturing facility discovered during routine testing that the rocket’s second stage leaked. The problem was traced back to an oxidizer tank Boeing buys from Alcatel Alenia Space in Turin, Italy.

Delta 2 Tank Worries Delay STEREO Launch

Rodolfo

Thought I would post the reminder that the STEREO spacecraft are set for launch Wednesday night aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The launch weather forecast calls for excellent conditions with a 90% chance of good weather. You can get the forecast and updates at www.SpaceflightNow.com.

The launch will be on NASA Television (www.nasa.gov/ntv for the webcast).

There will be a pre-launch briefing on Stereo:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html

October 24, Tuesday
1 - 3 p.m. - STEREO Prelaunch Press Conference and Mission Science Briefing - KSC (Public and Media Channels)

That's Eastern time.

There will be three months so they will be flying toward to their Lagrange Points: L4 (ahead of Earth) and L5 (behind of Earth).

Enclosed is a cut article from http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/design.shtml


For the first three months after launch, the two observatories will fly in highly elliptical orbits extending from very close to Earth to just beyond the Moon's orbit. STEREO Mission Operations personnel at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will synchronize spacecraft orbits so that about two months after launch they encounter the Moon, at which time one of them is close enough to use the Moon's gravity to redirect it to a position "behind" Earth. Approximately one month later, the second observatory will encounter the Moon again and be redirected to its orbit "ahead" of Earth.

The following link will show you clearly on how the Stereos spacecraft will get into their respective final points: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/movies...REO_phasing.mov

A very elegant fly-by design. It is like to play a ball game. That is to have a very precise aim to get up to there.

Rodolfo

T-4 minutes from launch as the last hurdles (concerns for toxic vapors over populated areas) are cleared

Can't wait for the first pictures..
tha animation of the moon fly by is pretty neat

We're still a long way from that yet. The launch has gone well so far, waiting info on whether the spacecraft have seperated from each other and solar panel deployment.

Launch Success: The STEREO Spacecraft have seperated from the Delta 2 at 9:17 PM EDT

http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/

Watching the live stream here, and people are clapping and smiling, so I presume things are going well.

http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=DataAnalysisOverview

SECCHI has an open data policy. Calibrated data will be made public via the Internet within hours of its receipt. The SECCHI team will provide modern data visualization tools to display the information from one telescope, to overlay data from multiple instruments, and to visualize coincident data from both spacecraft.



And a little more info on some of the instruments:

http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=Specifics

Coronographs: COR2 will image the corona with five times the spatial resolution and three times the temporal resolution of LASCO/C3.

Extreme Ultraviolet Imager: EUVI provides full Sun coverage with twice the spatial resolution and dramatically improved cadence over EIT.

Afternoon all,

I've managed to catch the X-Band signals from both of the Stereo satellites this morning, the signal was extreamly strong which isnt too suprising as they are so close to earth. I could see sidebands on the X-band signal, presumably downlink telemetry. The satellites only peaked at 15 degrees elevation this morning, so half of the dish was blocked by local buildings. Tommorows pass looks better with a 21deg peak elevation.

I've put up a report of the x-band reception at http://www.uhf-satcom.com/stereo/

regards,

Paul
www.uhf-satcom.com

Here's a couple of time-lapse photos:

http://www.launchphotography.com/STEREO.html

Are there any stereo websites that uh, don't suck? Just finding a basic rundown of instrument parameters for something like SECCHI/EUVI is like pulling teeth. I hope that once things get going there's a revamp and consolidation of mission information on ONE website.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html
http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/
http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/
http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.HomePage

Yeah but that's what I mean. I visited all those sites and most of them point to the NRL site for information on instruments but even after poking around that (positively byzantine) site for a while I still don't even know how big secchi's ccd is

The SECCHI HI instruments have a 2kx2k CCD (page 5) with 2x2 binning.

Shameless plug - I found this using my Google Space Flight Customised Search just by searching for "SECCHI CCD .pdf". It's the first link.

All kinds of low-level mission info at:

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/

For instance, this week's activities:


Airbag

no updates in this topic since october, but actually, very interesting things had happened last week:


(and even more news at http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/new.shtml)

so i am eager to see new pics, especially ones from December 7, when enourmous solar flare had been taken place.

PS First lunar swinby is scheduled for December 15.

The website here doesn't seem to have been updated since launch nearly 2 months ago http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/ The site you posted is the only source of information.

By the way, looks like the spacecraft have just had their lunar flybys, and you can start to see their different paths evolve:

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where.shtml

airbag

That's the first lunar flyby - B is now on its way - A will loop back one more time, get a flyby in about 35 days of the moon again - and head out the other direction.

Doug

Somewhere in their page is a link to an approximately weekly comissioning status report. All instruments have been activating nicely so far, though I think they generally aren't gathering data yet except the radio emissions spectrometer. They've had plots of that data up since almost immediately after launch, and the data from the two instruments is nearly identical..... except when first one spacecraft and then the other makes a periapsis pass through Earth's inner magnetosphere. Then back in the free-streaming solar wind, the data's nearly identical again.

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/new.shtml

First pics:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/n...irst_light.html

Phil