The KSC Spacecraft Fueling Services traces its origins
to the 1998 KSC Strategic Project number P199 under Objective 2.2: Perform
Advanced Payload Processing. KSC has implemented a total-service project
to design, build, and operate generic hypergolic propellant loading equipment
for NASA spacecraft customers. The objective is to provide low cost spacecraft
fueling service based at KSC to missions utilizing the NASA Launch Services
contract.
| Upcoming Fueling
Support: |
| Space
Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) is
scheduled to be launched in the summer of 2008. The propellants crew
is presently preparing to load the two spacecraft with hydrazine.
STSS
is a heterogeneous constellation of low-earth orbit satellites
that will detect and provide critical tracking information about
ballistic missiles globally.
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Solar
Dynamic Observatory is currently being built by NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center. The propellants team is presently evaluating
its needs in preparation for loading MMH, N2O4,
and helium into this large spacecraft to meet the late 2008
launch date.
SDO is designed
to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space
by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time
and in many wavelengths simultaneously.
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Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO
is being built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The propellants team
is presently evaluating its needs in preparation for hydrazine loading
requirements. LRO will be launched with LCROSS in the fall of 2008.
The Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter(LRO)
mission emphasizes the overall objective of obtaining data that will
facilitate returning humans safely to the Moon and enable extended
stays.
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Lunar CRater Observation
and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
project is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center and is being built by
Northrop Grumman. The propellants team is presently evaluating its
needs in preparation for hydrazine loading requirements. LCROSS will
be launched with LRO in the fall of 2008.
The Mission Objectives of the Lunar Crater
Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) are to advance the Vision
for Space Exploration (VSE) by confirming the presence or absence
of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at either the Moon’s North
or South Pole.
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| Completed Fueling
Support: |
Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (MAP) The KSC Fueling Team successfully loaded
NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) in SAEF2 on June 3-4, 2001.
The operation went very well and we exactly hit their target load weight
of 19 gallons and a pressure of 308 psia.
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COmet
Nucleus TOUR (CONTOUR) The KSC Fueling team had to take the
show on the road to John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL) in January 2002. Testing began with a water-load (demineralized
water), afterwards the spacecraft underwent vibration testing and was
moved to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for thermal/vacuum and
acoustic testing. The water was offloaded using the "emergency
offload procedure" and dried the spacecraft propulsion system
using a combination of nitrogen pulse-purges and vacuum-pumping.
The spacecraft arrived at KSC's SAEF2 processing facility and on June
6, 2002 was loaded with 18 gallons total high-purity hydrazine into the
two propellant tanks and pressurized with nitrogen to 325 psia.
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MESSENGER On
June 29, 2004 the KSC Furling Team loaded 42 gallons of N204 into
the spacecraft oxidizer tank. On July 1, 2004, 96 gallons of hydrazine
was loaded into three spacecraft tanks.
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Pluto
New Horizons On December 4, 2005 approximately 20 gallons of
hydrazine was loaded on board the spacecraft to guide it on its ten-year
journey to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects beyond.
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006.
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Time
History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) The
propellants team fueled NASA's five probes of the THIEMIS mission on
January 4, 2007.
Each probe
contained 12.8 gallons of hydrazine evenly divided into two tanks.
We believe this operation set a record for the most tanks (10) filled
in a continuous operation without conducting any intermediate connections
or disconnections.
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