The High Gain Antenna System (HGAS) onboard the GPM Core Observatory finished acoustics and post-environmental deployment testing at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The HGAS will then undergo Thermal Vacuum testing before it is completed and delivered in mid-September.

The below video shows a test of the High Gain Antenna System as it will deploy once in orbit aboard the GPM Core Observatory.

The GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) successfully completed Pre-Environmental Review (PER) on July 19-20, 2011, at Ball Aerospace in Colorado, which marks another key milestone for the GMI instrument. The GMI will undergo acoustic testing, vibration testing, and electromagnetic and thermal vacuum testing starting in August 2011. The GMI instrument is a multi-channel, conical-scanning, microwave radiometer, enabling the GPM Core Observatory to serve as a radiometric reference and also a transfer standard for the other GPM constellation members.

The High Gain Antenna System (HGAS) completed vibration test and moved to the acoustic chamber for the acoustic test at Goddard Space Flight Center. The HGAS helps to provide directional pointing for the Radio Frequency communications antenna, used with NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. 

The GPM Core Observatory structure successfully completed proof testing in the centrifuge facility at Goddard Space Flight Center. The satellite was tested at several different angles to simulate the increased feeling of gravity’s pull on the satellite during launch. Goddard's centrifuge can accelerate 2.5 tons to speeds so high that the payload experiences forces 30 times greater than the pull of Earth's gravity.

GPM has successfully completed the GPM Mission Key Decision Point - C (KDP-C) Review on December 2, 2009, which formally confirms the Implementation phase of the GPM Mission. 

GPM has successfully completed the GPM Mission Critical Design Review (CDR) on December 17, 2009.