STEREO Mission Design and Navigation Review Action Item 9

Open; response is below

In late 2005, the leap second was an issue because no leap second 
had been added for several years, and one was due to be added at the 
end of 2005.  The leap second kernels for both the FDF and Mission 
Design software was updated with the end-of-2005 leap second and 
satisfactorially tested before the leap second occurred.  It is now 
several months since it was applied, and no problems have been 
found on its account.  With the current slow change of delta-T, it's 
likely that another leap second won't be needed for a few years, 
well after STEREO mission design activities have been completed.  
However, an anomaly relating to the leap second file occurred during 
one of the spacecraft tests described in this message from John 
Eichstedt on March 27, 2006, which most likely has been corrected by 
now.

June 27, 2006