On November 26th, at 23:17 UTC, SGSLR at GGAO acquired and tracked its first satellite. This represents a significant milestone towards the deployment of the first operational SGSLR station in late 2025, located in Ny-Ålesund, Norway. The satellite tracked was STARLETTE, a geodetic ball 24 centimeters in diameter, in an eccentric orbit at 812-1114 km.

The Gimbal with Mass Simulator was removed from the GGAO SGSLR facility in June 2022 and shipped back to Cobham. After the Factory Acceptance Test at Cobham in Lansdale, the Gimbal and Telescope Assembly (GTA) #1 was shipped to GGAO and installed in the SGSLR shelter in late June 2022. Preparations for the Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) were begun shortly after installation.

The Space Geodesy Project completed the Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) of SGSLR's Gimbal and Telescope Assembly Unit #1 (GTA#1) in early June 2022 at the manufacturer's facility (Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions in Lansdale PA). After passing the FAT Review GTA#1 was then shipped to GGAO on June 21st and installed in the SGSLR facility on June 22nd by the prime SGSLR contractor, KBR, Inc.

A new jackscrew and gearbox assembly were installed on the 12m VGOS antenna system at NASA Goddard Geophysical Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) in Greenbelt, Maryland during the week of June 6 – 10, 2022. The GGAO site operations and engineering management team from Peraton, antenna repair technicians from Intertronics Solutions, Inc.

Gimbal #1 and mass simulator (GMS) were crated and shipped from Cobham in Lansdale PA and delivered to GGAO early in the week of September 16th. The riser, which is needed to mate the pier with the gimbal, was also delivered to GGAO early that week.The riser was lifted by crane through the dome slit into place in the SGSLR shelter early in the morning of the 19th and bolted to the pier.

The GGAO SGSLR shelter official inspection took place the morning of Tuesday July 30th. The official punch list for the inside was generated. Participating in this walk through were the Goddard Project Manager for the construction, Quality Assurance, Safety, the Construction team and SGP personnel (Long, McGarry, Donovan and Nelson). After the inspection, SGP officially took ownership of the shelter which is now Goddard building 228.

The dome Site Acceptance Test (SAT) was performed Friday morning May 3rd and it was successful. Here is a team picture of the Baader and SGSLR teams in the dome after the successful SAT.

The dome for the new SGSLR shelter building at GGAO was assembled by the Baader Planetarium team in the GGAO parking lot. Once the dome was built, on May 1st a crane arrived to perform the lifting. The dome ring, followed by the dome itself, were lifted and installed on the roof.

The shelter continues to progress. The doors and windows are taking shape and the roof is being worked.

The SGSLR dome passed Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) on March 5th at the Baader Planetarium factory outside of Munich Germany. The Baader development team and the three members of the SGSLR team who were at Baader’s facility for the FAT took time the following day for a group photo with the SGSLR dome. This is the dome that will be delivered to GGAO to sit on top of the shelter.

The shelter goes up in an all-day-long activity. The sun is setting as the roof is finally lowered onto the building by crane. MOBLAS-7 can be seen in the left foreground of the picture.

With the Government Shutdown now over, the pad has been poured. MOBLAS-7 is in the background with the telescope in the left most of the three trailers and the aircraft avoidance radar sits atop the center trailer.