The Starshine spacecraft passed
its vibration testing with flying colors at the Naval Research 
Laboratory
in Washington, DC during the period January 27-29, 1999. Here are some
images of the process, taken by NRL Photographer Michael A. Savell. The
first shows John Vasquez, who is the Starshine Spacecraft Lead Mechanical
Engineer, installing the completed spacecraft on an NRL vibration table.
If you would like to see a full-sized view of any of these images, click
directly on their “thumbnail” images. Here is the spacecraft sitting on
the horizontal vibration table, ready for testing at frequencies from 1
to 2000 Hertz and at acceleration levels from 1 to 18 times the force of
gravity. 
Students,
teachers and parents from Longfellow Middle School, Edgar Allen Poe Middle
School and Bishop Denis J. O’Connell High School in the nearby Virginia
suburbs came to NRL to observe what it takes to certify “their” spacecraft
for flight on the Space Shuttle. 
Here’s a picture of Bill Braun,
Starshine Spacecraft Program Manager, describing the vertical vibration
phase of the testing to some of those students, while Chris Butkiewicz,
Starshine Spacecraft Deputy Program Manager (in the 
red
shirt), awaits Bill’s signal to start the vibration table. Here's Bill
again showing off the interior of our “flight spare” spacecraft (without
mirrors) to another group of students while a Washington, DC Channel 8
video photographer records their reactions for the evening news.
NRL engineers re-cleaned Starshine, following its vibration testing, and transported it to a clean room at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Beltsville, MD. Students and teachers from St. Michael the Archangel School in Baltimore suited up in clean room garb and examined the spacecraft and its ejection system on February 11. The spacecraft was integrated with its flight canister on March 1, and students and teachers from Takoma Park Middle School in Rockville, MD observed the process. The canister will be installed in the forward starboard sill position, Bay 13, of Space Shuttle OV-103, Discovery, in the Orbiter Processing Facility, Bay #1 at Kennedy Space Center on March 10. Here are some images showing the cargo bay layout for the STS-96 mission.
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