A Flat Architectural Wall Approach to Electrical Integration and Test for GK2A and GK2B

Two geostationary satellites, GK2A (Chollian-2A) and GK2B (Chollian-2B) were developed simultaneously for 10 years by Korea Aerospace Research Institute and have been in operation since its launch in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Simultaneous development of two 3.5-ton class satellites could have some schedule delays during the assembly, integration and test (AIT) phase because of the sharing of the limited facilities and the delays in delivery of the flight model (FM) units and walls. The GK2A AIT activities should be planned with the GK2B AIT schedule as it could affect the GK2B launch date significantly. A new electrical test configuration had been proposed to implement the FM electrical interface (I/F) on the dummy walls and to assemble them in the flat architectural wall (FAW) configuration. The proposed configuration was adapted in the three test phases to check out the electrical integration and the bus system functions in the flat walls without the FM propulsion module and to verify the propulsion function after combining the FM propulsion module with the flat walls and finally to verify the payload electrical integration and its functions on the flat walls in which all FM electrical I/F of the bus and the payload are built up with the FAW configuration. Using the proposed configurations, it was possible to plan and conduct the electrical I/F tests with the long-term arrivals of the FM walls and the propulsion module. It minimized the harness repair time as it provided more safe and accessible work space than the rework activities on the coupled FM wall configuration. Moreover, the dummy walls were used for both satellite electrical tests so the AIT schedule of GK2B could start in a row after the second AIT phase of GK2A was completed. The goals of the proposed FAW configurations are to figure out and resolve all electrical I/F errors before the FM wall coupling phase, to minimize the schedule delay due to the latent electrical faults which could be found after the FM walls coupling to manage the complicate AIT schedules of two satellites in the integrated way. This paper details the proposed FAW configurations and the verification flows applied to the AIT schedules of GK2A and GK2B and discusses the advantages and lessons learned.