Memory 03

Out of Town Shift Help

During on orbit support, after a launch, which required around the clock shift manning, personnel from the factory in VF and test personnel from the VAFB contingent came to Sunnyvale to support the subsystems which were their primary area of responsibility, and this aided in manning shifts for our company’s on orbit support team. All were welcome additions to our post launch on orbit support team. The Valley Forge (VF) contingent were made up of system and subsystem engineers and some management personnel, most familiar with the OCV, many having been around through the design and test phases of the vehicle before its shipment to Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) for more prelaunch testing there.

The VAFB test personnel were also most familiar with the OCV, having been around during the prelaunch testing on the OCV. I felt that these personnel being available to support on orbit activities after launch were most valuable. They had knowledge of any anomalies uncovered during their test phases, and this proved important at times.

I recall one flight where, shortly after launch, on what was commanded/configured as a continuous channel, sub-commutated data appeared. One of the VAFB personnel who had transferred to Sunnyvale to provide on orbit support quickly said that somehow the vehicle had been spuriously commanded BACK to a Powered Flight mode used during the launch phase, rather than the Orbital Mode that had been commanded after the OCV was separated from the boosters and had achieved orbit. The VAFB person likely had monitored the continuous channel during the launch.

At the first acquisition after achieving orbit, the vehicle telemetry downlink stream should have been the Orbital Mode telemetry. Powered Flight mode of telemetry was unique to the launch phase, i.e., for the time from liftoff of the satellite vehicle until the boosters ended their work by placing the satellite vehicle into its orbit altitude. Prior to the acquisition of the vehicle telemetry at the first tracking station, the telemetry subsystem was commanded to Orbital Mode, which caused different vehicle data (such configuration, pressure, temperature and such) to be sent to the downlink telemetry transmitter, rather than the data sent to the same transmitter during the launch phase monitored in real-time after liftoff at VAFB.

The Valley Forge and Vandenberg personnel contributed greatly to the on orbit support effort, and, in particular, during anomaly times, where they could contact personnel in VF or VAFB to discuss what they were seeing in the way of telemetered data values from the vehicle. thereby having benefit of design and test personnel to aid in anomaly analysis and correction.

We prepared for the first launch in various ways, such as generating data logs and procedures needed after launch, in addition to supporting rehearsals to improve procedures and the logs, in addition to meeting and working with the various other organizations that were needed to support satellite operations.

This was time well spent; we were very busy during this short time, and, finally, on dd mm yyyy, with the launch of our satellite into a polar orbit from VAFB, the big test had arrived to test whether we were ready to support satellite operations!

Go to Memory 04: Hardware and Software Support by Other Entities.