Engineering Flight Tests
July 18, 1998 at Palestine, Texas a mass model of the TOPHAT spinner was successfully launched. This flight demonstrated the launch operational readiness of the mission unique design and the data acquisition system.
Sept. 28, 1998 a fullup Gondola-(power system ,C&DH system and interface to miniSIP) was flown successfully with second deployment of mockup of TOPHAT top system. Telemetry data was gathered for thermal design modifications to top system and solar array assemblies for the Antarctic flight. Commanding, TDRSS low rate, TDRSS high rate and HFPTT were tested. LOS Comm link was not tested.