SOHO Recovery Updates

SOHO is back in normal mode.

The first activity of the day was a roll trim that was carried out at 13:30 UT. Afterwards, receiver 1 was tested and locked while using the high gain antenna. Receiver 1 is used for ranging in normal mode.

A station keeping maneuver was completed in two burns along the X axis, direction away from the Sun. The first burn was 2 minutes and the second one 47.5 minutes long. FDF estimates that the resulting delta-vee was within 1% of the desired value of -6.2 m/s.

After the maneuver was completed, SOHO was commanded to high rate telemetry and then on to normal mode. The spacecraft entered normal mode at 19:52:58 UT.

A period of two weeks of ranging starts now. Next maneuver, therefore, will be scheduled for some time after October 8.

Next week will continue the recomissioning activities of spacecraft elements not used during the recovery maneuver. Also, there will be patch uploads and further tests of gyros A and C.