With five vehicles there is a pile of systems to test. A month ago as each system was completed they were individually bench tested. The next rounds of tests occur after they get mounted on their respective vehicles. That what we did Saturday. It’s called the intergrated systems test. We got though two main controller, four backup tracking units, three balloon release systems, two video camera controllers, two rocket motor heaters and two still cameras.
Still to go are three balloon release systems (one failed and needed work and retesting), five beacons, three still camera controllers, six still cameras and four satellite uplink units. After all the bugs are worked out on the intergrated tests we then move on to the full up tests. This is were we “ground fly” each of the vehicle from the mission control van. On that test we power up the systems with the flight check lists and run full mission durations. That means your’s truly needs to get busy and finish the checklists…..