The LEO construction base is nominally located in a 478 Km circular orbit at 31° inclination. This base houses a crew of 480 with overflow quarters for transients, e.g., those crew members awaiting transportation to some other location. The primary purpose of the LEO base is construction of eight SPS power generation modules and two antennas. The satellite construction timeline is shown in figure B-29. The base also serves as a staging depot for orbit transfer vehicles used to carry construction and maintenance crews, crew supplies and replacement parts to the GEO base. A construction crew OTV flight to the GEO base normally occurs once every three months. Maintenance crew and replacement components are also transferred to GEO every three months. The satellite modules are equipped with electric propulsion systems and flight control systems for the self-powered trip to GEO. The GEO base is used for final assembly and maintenance operations. The final assembly operations include module berthing, antenna placement, and deployment of solar array. The maintenance operations include refurbishment of failed SPS hardware. The GEO base is also used as a staging area for the satellite maintenance crews, mobile habitats, spare parts, and their orbit transfer vehicles. The GEO base houses 60 final assembly crew members and up to 240 SPS maintenance crew members. The maintenance crews are dispatched from the GEO base in an OTV- propelled crew module along with an OTV-propelled replacement parts module destined for an operational SPS that is scheduled for regular maintenance. The maintenance crew will visit each SPS two times per year and will spend four days replacing defective components before returning to the GEO base or proceeding to the next SPS. Construction Base LEO - The LEO construction base for the photovoltaic satellite consists of two interconnecting facilities. One of the facilities is used to construct the module and the other is used to construct the antennas as shown in figure B-30 and B-31.
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