INTEGRATING PROP AND RING

Narration: Gary Davis, Propulsion Lead

Transcript:
This is the Solar Dynamics Observatory propulsion module in the black bag there, being lowered down onto the launch vehicle payload attach fitting, which is the gold colored ring at the bottom. You can see on the edges we have red thruster covers which are protective covers to make sure that the thrusters on the corers don't get damaged during the lift. We lift down the propulsion module onto the path ring very carefully, and mate the two together. This is the launch vehicle interface mate for the flight, and the reason we are mating them is so we can perform a dry vibration test of the propulsion module. It's too hazardous to load the propulsion module with our rocket propellants for this test so we put a silver ring on top of the module to simulate the weight of the propellants. And then once the two are mated together, we perform the vibration test.