March 13, 2009

George H Diller Kennedy Space Center, Fla 321-867-2468 george h diller@nasa gov

STATUS REPORT: ELV-031309

EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE STATUS REPORT

Mission: Kepler Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7925 Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla Launch Date: March 6, 2009 Launch Time: 10:49 p m EST

The Kepler telescope was launched on March 6, 2009, at 10:49:57 465 p m EST The spacecraft was acquired by the Deep Space Network's Goldstone tracking station in California at 12:11 a m on March 7

Kepler now is undergoing checkout by engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a process called "commissioning" that takes approximately 60 days The telescope will then be turned over to the NASA Ames Research Center for science operations

Mission: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-O) Launch Vehicle: Delta IV Launch Pad: 37-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla Launch Date: No earlier than April 28, 2009 Launch Time: 6:24 - 7:24 p m EDT

The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-O, arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 3 It was shipped from its manufacturing plant in El Segundo, Calif , aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo plane

The satellite, developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, was transported to the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla

On March 4, technicians removed the satellite from its carrier and placed it on a test stand to begin approximately six weeks of final testing of the imaging system, instrumentation, communications and power systems

On Feb 25, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV core vehicle was erected at Launch Complex 37 The two solid rocket boosters were attached on Feb 27 and Feb 28 The spacecraft is scheduled to be transported to the launch pad on April 14 and integrated with the Delta rocket the following day

Boeing Launch Services is responsible for the launch of the GOES-O mission, NASA's Launch Services Program is supporting in an advisory role

Mission: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LRO/LCROSS) Launch Vehicle: Atlas V Launch Pad: Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla Launch Date: No Earlier Than May 20, 2009 Launch Time: 4:38 - 5:28 p m EDT

NASA now is targeting May 20 for launch instead of April 24 after another Atlas V government launch, also on Launch Complex 41, experienced technical problems and was delayed

NASA's Lunar Crater Observation Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS arrived at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla , near Kennedy Space Center, on Feb 19 It is now undergoing checkout and prelaunch preparations The spacecraft is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, arrived at the Astrotech facility on Feb 13 The spacecraft was uncrated and transferred to Astrotech the same day, where covers were removed and technicians performed a black-light inspection The spacecraft's solar arrays were attached and deployed, and a spacecraft activation test was conducted on Feb 15 The Deep Space Network end-to-end test was completed last week LRO and LCROSS will be integrated in mid-April LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md

The Centaur stage of the Atlas V arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb 20 It was offloaded and transported to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center facility on Feb 21 The launch vehicle fairing halves arrived at Astrotech on Feb 26 The Atlas payload fairings were moved from Astrotech's north encapsulation bay into the facility's spin bay on March 3

Previous status reports are available at:

http://www nasa gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/index html

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