The CTU will arrive from the vendor Saturday, Feb. 27 and be re-installed into Chandra on Monday, March 1. The CTU and IU will undergo testing March 8-12. The attitude control thrusters will be helium flow-tested the following day.
Planning is underway for the arrival of the solar arrays.
They are being transported by C-17 aircraft to the Shuttle Landing Facility with arrival currently scheduled for March 9. Operations to mate the arrays to Chandra are scheduled for the week of March 23 and they will be fully deployed for testing on March 27. On March 31, Chandra will be hoisted from its test stand onto a fueling stand. Loading of fuel into the spacecraft is currently planned to begin on April 5 and will take ten days to complete. These bi-propellant hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide fuels will be used by the telescope to achieve its final orbit.