Members of the SAGE III/ISS team traveled to the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this week to begin Instrument Payload (IP) and Nadir Viewing Platform (NVP) close-out activities in preparation for transport of the payloads to the SpaceX Payload Processing Facility (PPF). On Monday, November 28, the ground support equipment (GSE) was set up and the IP was moved from its shipping container to the clean tent. The IP Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station (ExPRESS) Pallet Adapter (ExPA) was inspected and the IP ExPA Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanism (FRAM) was exercised. The NVP was removed from its shipping container and moved into the clean tent Tuesday, November 29. Inspection activities continued on November 30 for both payloads including an inspection from the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) team in preparation for the EVA to remove and replace the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-4 (ELC-4) ExPRESS Pallet Control Assembly (ExPCA) next year. Processing was completed Friday, December 2.
The NVP and IP will remain in the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) clean tent until they are moved back to their shipping containers on December 8 and 9 respectively to support transfer to SpaceX scheduled on December 12
