Music.
Before the Solar Dynamics Observatory is allowed to turn its instruments on the sun,
technicians spent months making sure it is up to the task.
SDO, as the mission is known, arrived in Florida on July 9, 2009,
after its construction at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Once inside the large clean room at the Astrotech processing facility near Kennedy Space Center,
technicians carefully unpacked the spacecraft from its protective carrier.
After initial testing and processing, the workers deployed SDO's equipment to make sure it would work in space.
First, the high-gain antenna: Once the mission begins,
SDO will shoot hi-res images of the sun and relay the data instantly to a ground station in New Mexico.
Next, the technicians deployed the SDO's twin solar panels that will be called on to
power the craft during its mission.
At Launch Complex-41, SDO was hoisted to the top of a waiting Atlas V rocket on Jan. 26, 2010,
and attached to the Centaur upper stage in preparation for launch.
Next stop, a perch some 22,300 miles above Earth where SDO will keep a steady set of eyes on the ever-changing sun.