WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000
Music.

00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.000
Before the Solar Dynamics Observatory is allowed to turn its instruments on the sun,

00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:15.000
technicians spent months making sure it is up to the task.

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.000
SDO, as the mission is known, arrived in Florida on July 9, 2009,

00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000
after its construction at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:27.000
Once inside the large clean room at the Astrotech processing facility near Kennedy Space Center,

00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.000
technicians carefully unpacked the spacecraft from its protective carrier.

00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:37.000
After initial testing and processing, the workers deployed SDO's equipment to make sure it would work in space.

00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.000
First, the high-gain antenna: Once the mission begins,

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.000
SDO will shoot hi-res images of the sun and relay the data instantly to a ground station in New Mexico.

00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000
Next, the technicians deployed the SDO's 
twin solar panels that will be called on to

00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.000
power the craft during its mission.

00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:00.000
At Launch Complex-41, SDO was hoisted to the top of a waiting Atlas V rocket on Jan. 26, 2010,

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.000
and attached to the Centaur upper stage in preparation for launch.

00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:12.000
Next stop, a perch some 22,300 miles above Earth where SDO will keep a steady set of eyes on the ever-changing sun.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.000