(C5) Inspection of the Solar Arrays

After disassembling from the Spacecraft, Solar Arrays (SA) stand now on a dedicated jig in the S1 clean room.

A Thales technician proceeds to the solar cells inspection to make sure that nothing has happened during transport. There are eight SAs to be inspected. This is an activity requiring a lot of concentration. The number of cells is very high and the defects sometimes very tiny therefore the operator must frequently take a rest to relieve eye fatigue. Note that the protective cover is still mounted on the panel behind the operator; this is the SEVIRI panel, with a larger rounded hole fitting to the aperture of the imager.

An overview on the S1 clean room activities on 02/05/2015.

The black lion tamarin and the mysterious man

During the MSG-3 Launch campaign, we had a chance to observe a Red Handed Tamarin in action! (no comment post dated June 10th, 2012).

Apparently this type of small apes were known in Europe as early as the XVIth century as proven by the detail of the painting below.

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (Beverwijk ca 1500 - Brussels 1559),

Portrait of a man (detail 1), Museum Wallraf Richartz, Köln

The species represented next to the portrait seems to be a Black Lion Tamamarin (Leontopitheus Chysopygus), a small ape living in Brasil.

Coming back to the painting, one can wonder why this notable person wanted to be painted with a little ape and what was the meaning? Before investigating further, one can notice another detail that may be as odd as the first one: a little dog with its head and legs getting out of the fur collar coat. Was the guy simply a pet lover? No - this would be too simple. Had he connections with the Dutch outposts in South America? The Dutch Brazil will come roughly 100 years later…

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (Beverwijk ca 1500 - Brussels 1559),

Portrait of a man (detail 2), Museum Wallraf Richartz, Köln

The full painting shows a man with a long face, his head covered with a flat hat. The guy is looking at us in a rather authoritative way with one finger pointing upwards. Would his clothing be characteristic of a dedicated corporation or job? Could the decoration on his chest provide any further clue? Certainly but expert support would be needed on this matter to be conclusive. About the two animals, the dog and the ape, we can say that there are frequently represented in painting from the Renaissance up to the XXth century. They are likely used here as symbols to emphasize the way this character wants to appear vis a vis the others.

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (Beverwijk ca 1500 - Brussels 1559),

Portrait of a man, Museum Wallraf Richartz, Köln

If the dog in many civilisations is the symbol of the "guide" to pass borders (e.g. Egypt), it has also the meaning of protection (watch dog). The ape, may have several meaning as well depending on the context: witty, amusing, robbery... This Dutch or Flemish wealthy bourgeois who was portrayed by J. C. Vermeyen ca 1530 seems here to  tell us with not much humor:
-Be careful when you make business with me, I am not a nut but an important man.
There are are certainly other interpretations, Any other ideas?

Note: Any resemblance with existing shadow experts is purely coincidental :-)

(C4) Solar Arrays have been removed

The solar arrays that were covering the spacecraft during the transport have been removed.

MSG-4 in S1 without Solar Arrays (30/04/2015)

The spacecraft has been put horizontally in order that the Thales technicians could operate in a more practical way. In this open configuration, the spacecraft can enter now the next phase of integration and test activities.

 View of  the other side of the Spacecraft (02/05/2015)

(C3) From Container to Dolly

The lid of the Transport Container (TC) was lifted today. This unveiled a good looking MSG-4 after its trip to French Guiana.

Credits: Arianespace

Then, the Spacecraft had to be installed on its dedicated jig called the "dolly" where the final integration and testing can be made during the coming weeks till the fueling. It is removed here form the TC.

MSG-4 is seen here during its translation with the crane. The solar arrays are still covered with a protective foil giving this unusual silver appearance.

MSG-4 sits now on its Dolly (view from the bottom of the TC).

The launch campaign has now really started for the Spacecraft!

(C2) Unloading and transport from Cayenne airport up to S1B at CSG

Not much to say, just few snapshots of this chronology to give an idea of what has been a very long day.
1-General view of the plane configuring for the unloading operations (28/04/2015 just before 19:00 local time). By chance, no rain , no mosquitos...

2-Unloading of the containers from the rear side of the plane

3-Mounting the ramp for unloading the MSG-4 container from the front of the plane

4-MSG-4 unloading, just before lift up of the container on the truck by the crane (ca 11:15 local time)

Credits: Francois, KB was already en route to S1 in the truck transporting the Solar Array spares...

5-MSG-4 arrival at S1 in CSG after a 70 kilometer trip from Felix Eboué. The convoy was escorted by the Gendarmerie. The maximum speed was limited to 50km/h. Altogether the trip lasted 2 hours+ including technical stops for checks. Arrival at ca 02:15 am on 29/04/2015 at S1B

6-Rolling MSG-4 inside the S1 transfer bay

7-Almost done, MSG-4 Container in the S1 transfer bay..

… and touch down on 29/04/2015 @ 03:03am (local time).

Congratulations to all the teams and the Thales mechanical staff in particular for the work performed during this very long day!

(C1) MSG-4 travelled from Nice Côte d'Azur to Kourou

MSG-4 left Nice Côte d'Azur on board the Antonov-124 on 28/04/2015 in the morning heading to Dakar with 2 hours delay.

After a re-fueling of the plane in Dakar, the trip continued to Cayenne where the arrival was expected ca between 18:00 and 18:30 local time (21:00 - 21:30 UTC).
Hereunder is the route followed by the Antonov. If not very different form the one followed by the rowers for the famous race "Rames Guyane",  it was may be slightly quicker :-)

Wall map of the Rames Guyane race in the restaurant le Karting (Kourou)

As expected, the Antonov was approaching the taxi way of Felix Eboué airport at 18:16, 

...for a perfect touch down at 18:17!

At that time, the MSG-4 teams had already arrived at the Felix Eboué (ex Rochambeau) airport to welcome the Spacecraft and the unloading of the plane could start immediately under the authority of  "super" Nicole, the MSG allocated transport manager.

Nicole giving authorization to the convoy vehicles to proceed.

Successful VA-222 Launch !

The VA-222 flight already rescheduled twice was planned to lift-off from Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) ELA-3 on 26/04/2015 @ 16:38 (local time). This dual launch was delivering today in GEO orbit THOR 7, a Norwegian Broadcasting Satellite (manufactured by Loral) and SICRAL 2 an Italian Ministry of Defense and French DGA Satellite (manufactured by Thales Alenia Space).

The MSG-4 team decided to attend the VA-222 Launch from the Kourou beach. 

View of the Kourou beach towards the Pointe des Roches

As the flight had a delay of about 30 minutes,  there was enough time  to observe few typical birds of the guyanese seashore...

Identification to be provided later

… and few other migrating birds. As they were equipped with professional camera equipment one may assume that there were dedicated "rocket hunters" or "rocket paparazzi". Let us know if you have more :-). En passant, a huge thank to Ben and Matthijs for the great job they did to prepare for the arrival of the MSG-4 team in S1.

But suddenly crossing the Kourou sky, one could observe the rocket of the VA-222 mission just over our heads. The sound came in fact very late and the low frequencies are always impressive. Today the Ariane 5 was beautifully heading to Moon. Note also that day launches are not so frequent. We were then particularly lucky.

V-222  roughly two minutes after lift-off!

Few minutes later, as usual, the exhaust smokes were making live art in the Guyanese sky which had by chance cleared up in the afternoon. The separation of the two spacecrafts from the rocket concluded the mission of the launcher successfully.

VA-222 exhaust smokes

This day is in fact an important date for all the space community working with Arianespace and CNES at the CSG because this now leaves the floor free for the next Ariane 5 launch to come: VA-223. This new launch planned on mid-May 2015 is in fact the last Ariane-5 launch before "our" VA-224 (MSG-4/StarOne C4) launch expected on 02/07/2015. But before the MSG-4 launch, the light European launcher VEGA will put in orbit Sentinel 2, another ESA spacecraft. As you can imagine, the workload on the CSG is extremely important at this moment with an intensive use of all the resources to meet customer needs.
Today, let's warmly congratulate our predecessors and all teams who contributed to the success of the VA-222 launch!

La Pointe des Roches

Today is Sunday and we would like to post not only one but five postcards giving an idea of what is likely one of the most fascinating location in Kourou: La Pointe des Roches.  Some of our colleagues used to stay at l'Hotel des Roches located there. The best moment to enjoy this place is probably in the morning at breakfast when all kind of exotic fruits from the French Guyana are served on the buffets. Some may prefer a jogging along the beach… As far as we are concerned, let's have a walk around the place.

Postcard#1: Hotel des Roches seen for the Dreyfus tower

The hotel is located along the beach with few palm trees directly growing on the shore. But unfortunately the place is not so peaceful as the sea is extremely aggressive and destroy regularly the  the beach. Opposite to the Hotel, the Iles du Salut can be seen 10 kilometers far away in the Atlantic ocean. The Horizon line is low and the skies are always amazing.

Postcard#2: Opposite to Hôtel des Roches: Les iles du Salut

Looking southwards, one can see the mouth of the Kourou river. The traffic of large Cargo (e.g. Toucan) coming from Europe carry elements of Ariane rockets is heavy there and can even be observed from the hotel.

Postcard#3: Mouth of the Kourou river

The strange construction that appears on the right side of the preceding picture is the semaphore tower known as the "Dreyfus tower". It was used at the time of the "bagne" to communicate with the Iles du Salut where some political prisoners (including Dreyfus) were kept. This Dreyfus tower looks today as a Mickey mouse construction that does not fit much with the surroundings but it is part of the memorial monument of the site.

Postcard#4: Dreyfus tower

This sadly reminds the past history of this remote piece of land. There was also a jail in Kourou located in the district of La Pointe des Roches but it has been destroyed when the hotel was constructed in the sixties. What is left now from this period are the ruins of the sea dock where the prisoners disembarked.

Postcard#5; Wharf in ruin...

Today this is, of course, not used anymore, and we can observe all these vestiges from the catamaran sailing from Kourou to the Iles du Salut. The starting point of this about 1 hour cruise is just few hundred meters ahead. By sailing on this portion of the Kourou river you can get in one shot all the views of these five postcards and realize that despite these somber memories, La pointe des Roches is definitely one of the most beautiful site of Kourou.