<\/a>Under the telescope <\/div>
Photobombed by Tyr<\/div><\/div>![Under the "under the telescope" \u2022 <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27717602@N03\/8325462470\/" target="_blank">View on Flickr<\/a>](https:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8499\/8325462470_003246f0c8_m.jpg "Under the \\"under the telescope\\"")
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<\/a>Under the "under the telescope" <\/div>
aka the SIP<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Anti-sun side <\/div>
Featuring ACS crate, computer, and lead bricks for balance<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The central nervous system of BLAST <\/div>
Attitude Control System, and flight computers<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The anti-sun pyramid <\/div>
With elevation motor control, and roll side star tracker<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Cookie Monsters <\/div>
Plural<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>FInal inner frame balance <\/div>
Note little brick hiding in top right<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The eyes and optical nerve of BLAST <\/div>
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<\/a>Inside the covered side <\/div>
Batteries and solar charge controllers<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Evil bunny heat sink <\/div>
As seen through the window for plugging the solar panels in<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Rear of the SIP <\/div>
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<\/a>Pump hose <\/div>
While we roll out, we still need to apply vacuum to the cryostat's pumped helim stage<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Front of the towards-sun side <\/div>
With mylar covering, and solar panel struts<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Roll star camera <\/div>
And elevation motor controller<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>All of BLAST, one last time <\/div>
In the highbay that is...for at least this year...<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Inner frame balance pump and lock pin <\/div>
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<\/a>Antennas and pivot <\/div>
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<\/a>The shutter, just in between telescope and cryostat <\/div>
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<\/a>Taping on the last shiny triangle <\/div>
Now that we don't need to access inside any more<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Serial port hub <\/div>
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<\/a>One more of ACS and computers <\/div>
From the other side. I'm particularly attached to these things<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Checklists <\/div>
Gotta have checklists<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Bags on electronics <\/div>
For ascent through the atmosphere. And possibly out of superstition<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>More electronics bags <\/div>
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<\/a>Signing BLAST <\/div>
As a token of "So long, for now"<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Final tape up. Need more tape <\/div>
Group action shot<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Elio signs <\/div>
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<\/a>Balance bag <\/div>
Everything a body needs<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Rollout <\/div>
Goodbye highbay<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Tyr connects the solar power <\/div>
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<\/a>Signatures <\/div>
Tristan was napping after his schedule marathon, but got on at the last minute<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Window taped <\/div>
Now everything is taped for flight<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>White tape on sun sensor cables <\/div>
Because balloon payloads need lots of white duct tape<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>FInal bagging <\/div>
These ones were semi-final until some end-of-checklists steps were completed<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Waiting <\/div>
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<\/a>Obligatory hanging off The Boss shot <\/div>
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<\/a>Yellow stands <\/div>
For extra support while installing the ballast underneath<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Final outer frame balance check <\/div>
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<\/a>Obligatory The Boss plus BLAST plus highbay shot <\/div>
I'm almost out of obligatory shots, the rest will be launch specific<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Flight train laid down The Boss <\/div>
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<\/a>Pump hose <\/div>
Will be connected to a pump on The Boss until just before launch<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>![\"Launch\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8493\/8324490883_86f34e0dfe.jpg\" "\\"Launch\\"")
Launch day mega post! I start with some documentation of BLAST’s final flight configuration (which while a little boring is part of the reason people indulge my taking photos of everything). Then we go through our pre-launch preparations. Later, I’m allowed out to the flightline to document the assembly and inflation process there—much closer than I’d been before. Finally there is the launch itself, which went off cleanly. A big thanks to the CSBF crew for all their hard work. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6112"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6115,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112\/revisions\/6115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}