(C39) Post Scriptum-2 from GEO orbit: MSG-4 First image

As expected, the MSG-4 first image (full disc) generated by the SEVIRI instrument was delivered by EUMETSAT on 04/08/2015 @10:00 UTC (12:00 Darmstadt time).

This is the evidence that MSG-4 (called MET-11 in its operational life) is in good health. With no big surprise one can notice that the sky over Noordwijk is covered with clouds while sun is shinning in Cannes :-). On the left side of the picture, one can also see the overcast French Guiana coast  from where the MSG-4 journey started three weeks ago...

(C38) Post Scriptum-1 from Darmstadt

As explained in the last post, just after launch, the MSG-4 teams based in French Guiana packed their stuff and flown back to Europe because their job to prepare the Spacecraft for launch and get it into orbit was completed. In the meantime, another team was getting prepared: the LEOP (Launch and Early Operation Phase) Project Support Team. This team composed of people from Thales Alenia Space, Astrium, Selex, ESA and EUMETSAT was present in ESOC (European Space Operation Center) located in Darmstadt, Germany, few days before the launch. Their role was to advice regarding spacecraft aspects the ESOC team that was in charge of the deployment of the spacecraft in its final orbit and operational configuration before the hand over to the end customer (EUMETSAT). These activities have been described step by step in a separate post:  MSG-4 milestones.

This is a view of the control room in ESOC where these operations have  taken  place from 15/07/2015 to 24/07/2015.

 

Credits: Stéfane

ESOC Control room 

The picture below is not extracted from the Muppet Show. We confirm that ESOC  use its own set of mascots to support the SOM (Spacecraft Operation Manager) in charge in the difficult decisions he has to take. We assume that the four mascots below were allocated to MSG-1, MSG-2, MSG-3 and MSG-4... Anyway they can be proud of the job they made and they get, en passant, greeted by Toco on its way back to Europe :-)

 

Credits: Stéfane

Now a picture of  the dream team who completed the work during this crucial but  successful ten days:

 

Credits: Stéfane

1st row (left to right): Stéphane, Hans-Jürgen, Bernard, Stéphane, Odile, Jacques, Maurice,

2nd row (from left to right): Stefano, Ferran, Francesca, Chiara, Donato

Even if not on the picture, Denis, Orion, Jean-Philippe, Norbert, Frank and Wolfgang participated to the LEOP and should not be forgotten! Congratulations to all for this remarkable achievement.

As a tradition, after the completion of the LEOP (and the party :-), the MSG-4 name is eventually "engraved" on the wall of the ESOC Control Room.  

 

Credits: Stéfane 

The exhaustive list of all missions supported by ESOC

Another page of the Space History has been written. Look! what an honour to stand so close to Philae, the ESA robot which landed on comet67 Churyumov-Gerasimenko!  MSG-4 can be proud: A(nother) star is born! Long life to the MSG family and good luck to our EUMETSAT colleagues for the coming weeks and years.

Time to pack

This is the end of the MSG-4 launch campaign. After about three months in French Guiana to support this fantastic adventure, it is time to pack and fly back to our respective places in Europe.

Ohne Titel/Without Titel, Anreas Slominski (1959- ), 

Museum der Bildenen Künste, Leipzig

The outstanding performance of the ThalesAlenia Space team was the key factor for the success all along this MSG saga which started more than twenty years ago and that culminated with the successful launch of MSG-4, the last spacecraft of the series on July 15th 2015. MTG (Meteosat Third Generation) will be now, as explained in the introduction, the next milestone.

This last postcard flags also the end of this blog. It has been a pleasure to share with you this campaign step by step. We hope, with this (almost) daily reporting, to have kept you informed properly and that you have also enjoyed the "side" messages which tried to enlarge the usual engineering fields. If you found some interest in reading us, it is definitely our best reward.

We wish you all the best in your new projects and enjoy now a well deserved summer break! Good bye MSG, good bye to all.

From French Guiana with love.

Kirill B.

PS:
Last news from MSG: it goes (very) well, all planned operations are running nominally (See MSG-4 milestones page).
Last but not least, the first MSG-4 image, will be published early August when it will be released by EUMETSAT.

X - Forever spinning… Maelströms

Powerful phenomena observed in the nature such as volcanos, storms, tsunamis, hurricanes… have always been an endless source of inspiration for artists...

Hokusai's Great wave is one example among hundred others. The wave has not the exact shape of a vortex but gives however a quite scary impression: its power and its height are about to "swallow" the long (fishing?) boat and the sailors onboard… Life looks very frail and not much can be done against the power of the nature. This drawing also represents Mount Fuji in the background: a stable element contrasting with the transient move of the sea.

Hokusai (1760-1849), The great wave, ca 1830/34 (from the series 36 views of Mount Fuji),

Victoria an Albert Museum, London

Maelström is a word from Scandinavian origin: could it lead us in a way to Edvard Munch? If in "The Scream", the Norwegian painter did not represent a maelström as such, the surrounding environment is definitely spinning as an echo of the high degree of panic of the screaming guy facing the public. The complementary colours (sea/sky - blue/orange) increase this effect of anxiety. In the background, the elevated water is whirling giving the impression of an upcoming disaster. Has this work something to do with the a mental perception of reality (the subject has no eye on this version)? At a certain distance on the bridge, two people seems to witness with indifference this hopeless situation...

Edvard Munch (1863-1944), The scream, 1910, Munch Museum, Oslo
Credit: Wikipedia

Another example may be picked up in Edgar Poe's tale "A descent to the Maelström" (1841) translated into French by Charles Baudelaire and grouped with other novels under the title "Histoires extraordinaires". In this short story, a man tells his friends how he survived a terrible hurricane as his ship was caught in a vortex. This novel, considered as one a first Science fiction tale, was illustrated according to Wikipedia by Harry Clarkes in 1919.

Illustration for Edgar Poe's short story "A Descent into the Maelström",

Harry Clarkes, 1919

Credit: Wikipedia

From Earth to deep space...The Whirlpool galaxy gives a perfect example of the "organized chaos" in the universe. It is not sure which kind of ship or Noah's arch would resist or survive in a such maelström… Anyway, seen from remote, one can be amazed on one hand by the prowess of the technique to capture such an event and, on the other hand, by the artistic dimension of this picture.

The Whirpool Galaxy, January 2005?

Credit: Wikipedia

Hyeronymus Bosch died in 1517, the same year Martin Luther initiated the Reform in Wittenberg. Europe at that time was strongly under Christianity influence, the only stable institution after the collapse of the Roman Empire. People's life was driven by fear of Hell and Heaven was promised to those meeting lifelong the principles prescribed by the religion. In the painting below Bosch illustrates this sequence after the death where an army of angels help the "good ones" to reach it. Funnily, Heaven is represented with a spiral shape with a bright center not so different from the whirling galaxy above. Of course, no conclusions can be drawn, but this pure fantasy representation of what is beyond our own borders may surprise by its modernity from an artist who evidently never observed the sky with the modern equipment we have today...

Hyeronymus Bosch (1450-1516),

Part of the Polyptich "Visions of the Hereafter", Ascent of the blessed, 1505/10

Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy

Credit: Wikipedia

Unknown artist, Fresco on the Neptune building at the CSG

VA-224 Main Flight events

For those interested by the important launcher events after the  H0, the chronology of the VA-224 mission is provided below:

• H0 Reference time
• H0+1 sec, EPC (Etage Propulsion Cryogénique/ Main Cryogenic Stage) ignition
• H0+7,05 sec, EAP1&2 (Etage d'Accéleration à poudre/Solid Booster 1 and 2) ignition
• H0+7,5 sec, Lift-off
• H0+2 min 21 sec, EAP separation
• H0+3 min 43 sec, Fairing jettison
• H0+8 min 58 sec first stage separation
• H0+ 24 min 53 sec, Injection
• H0+28 min 19 sec, StarOneC4 separation
• H0+30min, MSG acquisition by Malindi tracking station
• H0+30min 59sec, SYLDA separation
• H0+40min 22 sec, MSG-4 separation

L0 Launch attempt 15/07/2015

Follow the MSG-4 launch live on Arianespace TV, ESA, and EUMETSAT web sites.

All time of the chronology below are local/Kourou time (i.e. Universal Time -3 hours)

The launch window starts today 15/07/2015 at H0 18:42

Duration of the Launch window: 37 minutes,
Launch windows ends at 19:19.

07:10 am: Arriving at S1 B (few kilometers from the launch pad). An overview of the the weather over the place this morning: wet and cloudy, no rain and light breeze.

07:30 @ EPCU S1B LBC2. The D-Day has started. Arrival of the teams.

 View on LBC 2 (satellite control room) just before the arrival of the teams

08:39 am (H0-10h03m) ; Start of the Countdown in Jupiter

09:40 am (H0-9h02m): MSG-4 is authorised to be switched on

In the meantime we got a visitor to support us in the LBC2...perched next to Jean-Claude, the RPS (Spacecraft Preparation Manager).

 

Toco, MSG-4 mascot

10:07 am (H0-08h35m): the RPS is asked to test Spacecraft RED status (Green back 10 minutes later)...

11:27 am  (H0-07h15m): MSG-4 Status for meteo debrief: MSG status is green. S/C is ON. Temperatures are OK.

12:01  (H0-06h41m):  Meteo is GREEN (in particular high altitude wind are OK) 

12:12 (H0-06h30m ): MSG-4 RF transmitter in ON. Below, Gérard in front of the RF bays. Telemetry received by ESOC via NDIU.

13:11 (H0-05h31m): All parameters in Jupiter 2 are GREEN.

13:30 (H0-05h12): Meteo is confirmed GREEN (no requirement anymore for EOLE plan. Launch attempt targeted for H0)

13:58 (H0-04h44m): All parameters GREEN 

 in the meantime, there is evidence from the wall monitors in S1B giving live views from the launch pad, that the cryogenic fueling of the launcher has started.

15:37 (H0-03h05m): Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN

15:45 (H0-02h57m): View on the launcher on the ELA-3 (from wall monitor).

 

16:42 (H0-02h00m): Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN. All parameters in Jupiter 2 are GREEN.

17:17 (H0-01h25m):  Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN.

17:42 (H0-01h00m):  Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN. Meteo is confirmed GREEN. Below a quick look on the LBC-2 clocks: the first line UT and second line count down.Still one hour to go!, We get closer.

 

LBC-2 clocks 

18:10 (H0-32m00s):  Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN.

18:20 (H0-22m00s): MSG can go on internal power.

18:31 (H0-11m00s) MSG on internal Power and Status of the MSG-4 Spacecraft is GREEN. Meteo is GREEN. 

18:35 (H0-07m00s): Start of the synchronized sequence.

18:42 (H0) and lift-off. 

19:22 (H0+40m22s): MSG-4 Separation. Mission is declared successful! 

 

Separation from the launcher...Bye Bye MSG-4!

Credits: Arianespace

It is time now to celebrate in LBC-2.

And now the LEOP team in ESOC (Darmstadt) will take over... All the best from Kourou!

L-1 Bis Launcher on ELA-3

The Ariane 5 Launcher for the VA-224 mission spent its first night on the ELA-3 Launch pad.

 

Credits: CNES/AE

Due to the French national day on 14th of July, there were not enough resources at work in French Guyana required for a Launch. This means that the Ariane 5 launcher had to stay during this Bastille day on the ELA-3 launch pad. During these additional 24 hours, ThalesAleniaSpace performed few routine activities on MSG-4 (e.g. battery charging…). On the launcher side, the ventilation under the fairing will be continued in order to keep the critical items (tanks and batteries) under their required limits. This is necessary as the temperature under the sun during the day can be close to 40 deg. C. So far all monitoring measurements are well within the specifications required for the launch. It is noteworthy to mention that the weather this morning in Kourou was overcasted and rainy. The picture below gives a nice day view of the launcher on its launch pad.

Credits: CNES/AE

From the S1B, the wall monitors give now live views of the launcher on its pad and also close up on  the Vulcain engine.

 

Vulcain Enine of the Ariane 5 Launcher

If everything goes well, tomorrow (15/07), 10 seconds before 18:42 (Kourou time, i.e 23:42 Western Europe time), Damien should pronounce from Jupiter 2 these well known and formal words:

-A tous de DDO,  Attention pour le décompte final, 10, ...

Follow with us the final chronology, tomorrow 15/07 starting from 07:30 am (Kourou time).