[/caption]The “Crown Jewel” of NASA’s solar science research fleet, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, was transported from the Astrotech payload processing facility outside KSC to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Launch Complex 41 in the overnight hours of Jan 26. It’s standard operating procedure to transport such highly valuable payloads after midnight, when … Continue reading "NASAs Solar Crown Jewel Bolted atop Atlas Rocket"