SOHO Recovery Updates

Stopped tank heating at 20:15 UT to recharge batteries for 30 hours. Will resume tank heating tomorrow night. Once the propellant in the tank has been brought to 10 deg C, we will start heating the pipes. After pipe heating, which will take about 2 days, there will be a gyro test, HPA test (in high power mode) and thruster test. The schedule for these activities is still under discussion.

Prelmininary analysis of the ranging data indicates that we are very close to the predicted orbit before the momentum management on 24 June, i.e. the delta V disturbances experienced during ESR 5, 6 and 7 were very small. To give you an indication of how good the orbit still is: For an orbit correction on 15 September we would need only a few kg of hydrazine.