Pre-Hang-Test-Test: November 27, 2012

On Tuesday morning, we basically did the same thing as Monday morning. BLAST got picked up and taken out onto the deck of the payload building and then transferred on to the launch vehicle. Once that was done, we hooked up Super-TIGER to the crane and brought it out onto the deck. Once it was out there, we deployed the solar panels and ran entirely independent of the lab power supply we use inside.

This test was primarily a communications and compatibility test, so we went through a variety of exercises to make sure things were working properly. We were able to power things up and take more muon calibration data, and also get a good feel for the solar panel outputs. We also got a good test of the temperature sensors we have in various places around the instrument and how warm the foam insulation layer keeps things when the system is running inside and it's cold on the outside. The environment sitting on the deck is very different than during flight, but so far it looks like things will be warm enough when we go outside for the Hang Test and also when we're sitting on the launch vehicle waiting for launch.

From here, we have a day to make sure that everything is ready for our planned Hang Test on Thursday. If the weather cooperates then (which we don't have a good idea of yet), and things go well, we'll be in a position to declare ourselves flight ready on schedule and hopefully take the first launch opportunity that comes up.