Dropping BallAst

With our detectors at cryogenic operating temperatures (0.3 K), our team of detector experts have been tuning the readout to make them as clean and well behaved as possible. We’ve been monitoring and testing detector health, and doing some pre-flight calibration tests. And fixing bugs in the fight code, testing satellite communications, and churning through our list of little things to build or fix. At the same time, there’s a whole bunch of arts and crafts going on, primarily to turn our sun shields from the empty frame they’ve always been previously into something that can actually block the sun, and keep our instruments from overheating. Eventually all of Spider will be covered, except from the front side where it looks out at the dark sky. We might have a launch opportunity next week (it’s too early to say, but near enough to start trying). So we’re going to be pushing hard, and cutting some corners (only the cuttable ones, of course) to be ready in time. Wish us luck! […]