STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2026-10-06 (Week 41) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * After many years of service to the STEREO mission, Kathleen Harmon is retiring. Erik Monson will be taking her place. Congratulations to Kathleen on her retirement, and welcome to the team, Erik. * To celebrate the 20th launch anniversary of STEREO, there will be a showing of 'Solar Storms' - a planetarium show featuring the mission - at the Owens Science Center near GSFC. The event will take place on Monday, October 26th at 5:00 PM, followed by a Q&A session. The showing is free and open to the public, but please see the email forwarded by Owen Dudley for the RSVP link to help organizers plan for attendance. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a moderately higher than normal background rate. * After the initial loss of communications with the Behind observatory in September of 2014, NASA stopped periodic recovery operations with the last support on October 17, 2018. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 40 (Sep 28 - Oct 4) * On day 271 (Sep 28), during the DSS-65 support, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 12:32 and 12:35 UT, due to rain. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 236 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the support and recovered all the affected data. See DR #M119523 for more information. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 7.5 Gbits during this week. Week 41 (Oct 5-11) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all ten at 480 kbps. * An ESA Malargue track was successfully conducted today, October 6th, from 08:45 to 11:05 UT. * There is a DSN mission network maintenance scheduled for today, October 6th, from 16:40 to 20:40 UT. * There is a DCD PIT test scheduled for Saturday, October 10th, from 18:25 to 19:55 during the DSS-36 track. There will be no SSR playback or instrument commanding during this activity. Week 42 (Oct 12-18) * Ahead has fourteen tracks during the week, one at 720 kbps, and thirteen at 480 kbps. * The 189th momentum dump is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14th, at 20:15 UT. * On Thursday, October 15th, from 03:00-05:00, there will be a return-to-service engineering demonstration during the DSS-63 track. There will be no SSR playback or instrument commanding during this track. * An ESA Malargue track is scheduled for Friday, October 16th, from 06:55 to 08:45 UT. Week 43 (Oct 19-25) * Ahead has thirteen tracks during the week, one at 720 kbps, and twelve at 480 kbps. Week 44 (Oct 26 - Nov 1) * Ahead has twelve tracks during the week, all twelve at 480 kbps. * Monday, October 26th, is the 20th STEREO launch anniversary. * The 81st SECCHI stepped calibration roll is scheduled for Friday, October 30th, at 04:45 UT. * Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, Nov 1st. Week 45 (Nov 2-8) * Ahead has twelve tracks during the week, three at 720 kbps, and nine at 480 kbps. * There is a DSN network maintenance event scheduled for Tuesday, November 3rd, from 00:00-04:00 UT. * The 21st battery discharge event will take place on Tuesday, November 3rd, at 14:05 UT. Week 46 (Nov 9-15) * Ahead has eleven tracks during the week, three at 720 kbps, and eight at 480 kbps. * APL will be closed on Wednesday, November 11 for the Veterans Day holiday. Other COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 41: M Oct 05 (278) T Oct 06 (279) W Oct 07 (280) T Oct 08 (281) F Oct 09 (282) S Oct 10 (283) S Oct 11 (284) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 42: M Oct 12 (285) T Oct 13 (286) W Oct 14 (287) Ahead: Momentum dump, 20:15 UT T Oct 15 (288) F Oct 16 (289) S Oct 17 (290) S Oct 18 (291) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 43: M Oct 19 (292) T Oct 20 (293) W Oct 21 (294) T Oct 22 (295) F Oct 23 (296) S Oct 24 (297) S Oct 25 (298) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 44: M Oct 26 (299) STEREO 20th Launch Anniversary T Oct 27 (300) W Oct 28 (301) T Oct 29 (302) F Oct 30 (303) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 04:45 UT S Oct 31 (304) S Nov 01 (305) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 45: M Nov 02 (306) T Nov 03 (307) W Nov 04 (308) T Nov 05 (309) F Nov 06 (310) S Nov 07 (311) S Nov 08 (312) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 46: M Nov 09 (313) T Nov 10 (314) W Nov 11 (315) Veterans Day T Nov 12 (316) F Nov 13 (317) S Nov 14 (318) S Nov 15 (319) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2026: * Nov 28-Dec 6 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 24 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2027: * Feb 25-Mar 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 8 Solar Orbiter Perihelion * May 24-31 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * July 7 Solar Orbiter Perihelion * Aug 21-28 Parer Solar Probe perihelion pass * Nov 17-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 4 Solar Orbiter Perihelion 2028: * Feb 14-21 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Mar 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * May 8 Solar Orbiter Perihelion * May 12-19 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Aug 8-15 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Oct 5 Solar Orbiter Perihelion * Nov 5-12 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2029: * Jun 10 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit 2030: * Sep 3 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby ######################################################################## Access the STEREO-SCI-OPS Home Page and Archives: http://listserv.jhuapl.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=STEREO-SCI-OPS Unsubscribe from the STEREO-SCI-OPS List: http://listserv.jhuapl.edu/scripts/wa.exe?TICKET=NzM5ODI3IHNoYWVsYS5pLmpvbmVzbWVjaG9sc2t5QE5BU0EuR09WIFNURVJFTy1TQ0ktT1BTIONO%2Fe5vX26v&c=SIGNOFF ########################################################################