SDO Weekly Report for May 7, 2004

In a further blow to SDO's ongoing struggle to procure components to
build the mission, SDO's propulsion team was pulled off to work in the
IMDC for one week to support the HST Robotic Servicing Mission
procurement.  Their high priority procurement documentation has been
delayed.  As reported last week, SDO's Contracting Officer was
reassigned to the Robotic Servicing Mission Procurement.  His identified
replacement is currently JWST's Contracting Officer; as no back fill is
planned for JWST, she will be unable to work full-time on SDO, and will
not be able move to the Project area.  Additional contracting
specialists have been identified for SDO; one who started last week is
new to NASA, the other has not yet started.  In addition, another
Contracting Officer has been promised.  It is hoped that things will
improve after all procurement staff are on-board, but delays have
already been incurred and more are inevitable.  Our experience in trying
to move just the one SBC procurement through "the system" is very
discouraging, and it seems clear that GSFC simply cannot handle the
volume of component buys that SDO requires on any schedule approaching
the need dates.  We are currently investigating having our Support
Service Contractors provide components, even though we will pay a
substantial premium.

The IV&V folks were in town last week and presented an overview of their
plans for SDO.  It was a productive interchange.

Spacecraft development continued to progress, with emphasis on
completing breadboards and initiating procurements. The SSPA breadboard
#2was in test. The SDN breadboard # 1 was checked out without the full
SRAM and delivered to Flight Software for testing. SRAM memory is
expected to be delivered early next week. Layout effort began for the
ACE RWI, and C&DH Ka Com, S Com and Overlay boards. The procurement team
distributed an updated Specification and SOW. The SBC RFP was scheduled
for release this Friday, May 7. Project Monthly meetings were held with
all subsystem leads and instrument managers to review schedule and cost
progress, in preparation for the SDO AETD Champion review scheduled for
next week.

The Mission Assurance team is working with the Product Design Leads and
manufacturing on printed circuit board fabrication issues in order to
mitigate potential assembly issues.  A preliminary x-ray inspection of a
board was formed to quantify some of the potential concerns/issues
involved in building a 20-layer board. This will remain an ongoing
support effort. A presentation to the SDO cPCI working group was made.
QA presented the difficulties (solder wetting, and board de-lamination)
in the manufacturing assembly process and the need to balance electrical
performance design constraints against Design For Manufacturing (DFM)
considerations.

HMI has submitted a proposal to include AIA CCDs, CEB, and EEE parts
under the HMI contract. The proposal is currently being evaluated by
SDO. A detailed radiation analysis model of HMI was completed and the
first cases are being analyzed. The HMI shutter life test began this
week, in addition to testing on the HEB development bridgeboard,
motherboard and interconnect board. The HMI connector pin-outs will be
available next week. A major achievement was made by HMI this week. An
image was taken using an e2v demonstration CCD with an RAL breadboard
SECCHI camera. The CCD currently under test is the HMI front illuminated
thin gate 4kx4k. Congratulations to the RAL and e2v.

This image is also a significant milestone for AIA development.  In
other AIA news, to replace their departing Contamination Control Lead
Engineer, LMSAL is hiring a consultant who, along with a LM
contamination control engineer, is expected to begin next week.
Measurements of the critical thermal properties for the AIA zirconium
(Zr) entrance filters were completed and will be used to update the
thermal models to better predict the front filter temperatures. Requests
for action from the AIA PDR have been received by the project and
forwarded to LMSAL.



--
Liz Citrin
SDO Project Manager
301-286-1222
FAX 301-286-0214
Cell 410-241-0503