M6.6 Solar Flare - Largest of this solar cycle

A M6.6 solar flare has just occurred, peaking at 17:38 UT on Feb 13. This is the largest solar flare so far from this solar cycle based on X-ray irradiance magnitude. Check for other movies and images on the SDO website!

SDO Launched One Year Ago!

At 10:23 am ET February 11, 2010, SDO launched from SLC 41. 108 minutes later SDO became a spaceship!

Happy Birthday SDO!

SDO Moved to the Launch Pad and the Winds Blew!

On February 9, 2010 the launch vehicle carrying SDO moved from the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) to the launch pad at SLC 41. It was quite an impressive display. The upper picture shows the view from the VIF. Two locomotives pushed the launch stack at a comfortable walking speed toward the pad in the distance. Trailers filled with SDO computers that would monitor the spacecraft until launch are in front of the rocket and will be pushed into tunnels for protection during launch.


The next photo shows the stack as it arrives at the pad. (The towers are lightning arrestors that surround the pad.) The grey spar next to the rocket is an important player in the launch sequence. It supports power and telemetry cables to the payload and the Centaur second stage (the narrow part of the stack.) It also carries a tube that blows clean nitrogen into the instruments to keep away contaminants. On February 10 it played a different role. That morning the launch window opened at 10:26 am ET. The winds must be below a maximum speed to allow a launch to proceed. One direction, from roughly the northwest, is the most critical because such a wind would push the spacecraft toward the spar. Of course, the strong weather pattern that was pounding the Snowmageddon Launch Team in Maryland produced such winds. After waiting 50 minutes at T-10 minutes, the spacecraft was ordered into the final 10 minutes of the countdown. Two seconds after that the spacecraft detected wind gusts that were too high and shut down.

SDO would remain on Earth for another day.

Today's Delta-H Maneuver

At 1940 UT (2:40 pm ET) on February 9, 2011 SDO will execute a Delta-H maneuver. This is a planned activity. Science data will be interrupted for about 30 minutes. The actual duration will be determined by the onboard software as it changes the reaction wheel speeds and fires the thrusters of the spacecraft to complete the maneuver. The goal is to adjust the reaction wheel speeds so we can maintain the pointing of the spacecraft over the next few months.

Here is a picture of a test thruster being fired on the ground in 2006 (we cannot see the actual thrusters on the spacecraft.) The thrusters should fire for up to 4 seconds.

UPDATE: The maneuver was completed using 66.6 gr of propellant with the thrusters firing for 4.05 sec. The satellite was pointing away from the Sun for about 15 min.

This Winter is Colder Than Last, But We Launched in 2010

The winter of 2010 was cold, but the week of SDO's launch was also very snowy. Here is the surface weather map for February 8, 2010. An enormous low pressure system was developing in the Midwest and moving toward the east. STS-130 roared into space in the cold morning of February 8, 2010. A 24 hour period was required before trying to launch SDO on February 10. That enormous low would move over the mid-Atlantic and leave two feet of snow, on top of the two feet that were dropped on February 5-6! This 48 inches of snow greatly complicated the lives of the SDO team at Goddard. To launch SDO we had to be able to take control of the spacecraft when it separated from the Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle. If the SDO team was not at Goddard we could not launch. This meant that the launch team moved into Goddard on February 9, 2010 to wait for launch in their offices and nearby hotels.

Hats off to the Snowmageddon Launch Team!

We've Come a Long Way SDO

Just a little over a year ago, SDO was fueled and placed into a fairing. The next day we were hoisted to the top of our rocket. Here is one of our final looks at the spacecraft before it was sealed from sight.

It's been a great year!

SDO EVE Cruciform

Today, Jan 27, SDO is performing maneuvers designed to help the EVE team more fully understand its instrument. These spacecraft maneuvers, called cruciforms as they point the spacecraft in a cross-like pattern at multiple steps, happen twice a year. You may notice the Sun stepping across the AIA or EVE/SAM images, or missing altogether today. Don't worry, just another planned calibration activity to help SDO achieve the best possible data!