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GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

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the all the spacecraft status data. By late evening, it was clear that theliquid helium in the dewar had run out, and that the dewar andSQUIDs were slowly beginning to warm up.This morning, at our daily all hands meeting-the last of our dailyspacecraft status meetings-the room was packed. The word was outthat we had run out of helium, and everyone came to hear the details.At the end of the meeting, <strong>GP</strong>-B program manager, Gaylord Green,and <strong>GP</strong>-B principal investigator, Francis Everitt, each congratulatedthe team on their superb performance in working with one of the mostcomplex spacecraft ever launched. We then assembled in front of the<strong>GP</strong>-B building for a group photo, and the next to last chapter in thelong and colorful history of <strong>GP</strong>-B came to a close.AMERICAN PIE—GYRO STYLE(With apologies to Don McLean)A long, long time ago....I can still remember how that dewar used to make me smileAnd I knew if I had my chanceThat I could make those gyros danceAnd Francis would be happy for a while.But September 1st had come and goneThe helium went on and onNo time for celebrationAnother calibration....I can't remember if I criedRemembering how hard we'd triedAnd I was filled with a sense of prideThe day the dewar died....REFRAINSo, bye-bye, our friend in the skyTied my SQUID to the dewar,But the dewar was dry,And the good ol’ boys, drinking coffee and wine,Singing this’ll be the day that I die,This’ll be the day that I die….The gyros spun a little slow,So Gaylord said increase the roll.And gyro drift was truly low,The day the dewar died...We will continue to post these weekly updates for another week or so,while we perform some final tests as the spacecraft warms up. We willthen transition to less frequent updates-either bi-weekly or monthlyasthere will be little news to report from week to week during thecoming year of data analysis.For now, we leave you with a song, written by Rob Brumley (ourformer gyro expert), Greg Gutt (one of our former SQUID experts),with help from Bill Bencze (our deputy program manager forengineering).520 March 2007 Appendix C — Weekly Chronicle of the <strong>GP</strong>-B Mission

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