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Gravity Probe B

Testing Einstein's Universe

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR WEEK ENDING 05 February 1999:

STANFORD HIGHLIGHT
Under Professor John Turneaure's direction, the testing of the flight telescope has been successfully completed. The light throughput and the performance of the two detector channels fully met the hardware's requirements. Next, the telescope will be bonded with the Quartz Block. The telescope test team includes Lynn Huff, Ken Bower, Howard Demroff, and Bob Farley. Photo: Telescope and Quartz Block Dr. Bill Bencze visited the GP-B computer vendor (Southwest) to accept the flight computer hardware. We now have at Stanford all of the payload processors for the mission. This includes 2 processors for the SRE, 4 processors for the GSS, and one spare unit.

SPACE VEHICLE HIGHLIGHT
The initial installation of hardware and software (POD D) into the GP-B Mission Operations Center (MOC) located at Stanford University occurred the week of January 27. Pod D, which consists of 5 workstations, performs spacecraft commanding and telemetry data collection and display. A test was successfully performed to send commands and receive telemetry via T1 line from MOC to the Integrated Test Facility in LMMS Building 251. This test established the capability for MOC to start integration testing with key command and data handling elements located in the ITF, and later this year with the Space Vehicle. Photo: LMMS engineers Bill Jacobsen, Kate Trevisan and Lynn Walsh setting up POD Cat Stanford. Not Pictured: Karl Allmendinger, Linda Fronsdahl, Gene Pennington.

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