VA-224 - Launcher Status (1)

An Ariane 5 ECA rocket will put MSG-4 in orbit. The VA-224/L-578  (i.e. the 224th of an Ariane 5 rocket and the 78th of on Ariane 5 rocket) launch will be a double launch with StarOne C4 in upper position and MSG-4 in lower position.

In parallel to spacecraft preparation, the launcher is being integrated in the BIL (Batiment Integration Lanceur).  Once ready, the Ariane 5 will be transferred to the BAF (Final Assembly Building), where the two spacecrafts will be mated on the top and covered by the fairing. An overview of the launcher status on 15/05/2015 is given below. Credits for all pictures: ESA-Arianespace

1-Transfer of EAP (Solid Propellant Booster) to BIL (Launcher Assembly Building)

2-EPC (Cryogenic Core Stage) integration in the BIL

 3-EPC is hoisted in BIL

4-EPC erection in BIL before assembly of the EAP (Solid Propellant Boosters)

A more complete overview about the VA-224 launcher can be found on the CNES blog.

0 - Forever spinning… Introduction

MSG on the spinning machine in TAS-F

MSG-4 is definitely the last ESA spinning spacecraft and likely one of the very the last spinning spacecrafts of the space history still to be launched. MTG, the Third Generation of Meteosat spacecrafts that will come after MSG in few years, won't be spinning anymore. MTG spacecrafts will be three-axis stabilized meaning that the MTG Imager will look at the Earth from GEO orbit permanently while the MSG Imager (SEVIRI) looks at the Earth only a limited amount of time (when SEVIRI aperture is facing the Earth). There are quiet a lot of other improvements between MSG and future MTG spacecrafts but let's celebrate for the moment  the end of the generation of the spinning spacecrafts !

To remember MSG still for long, the MSG team found this nice short slogan "forever spinning"… that will be reproduced on several Public Relation items during the MSG-4 Launch Campaign. We picked it up in this blog in order to contribute, our way, to this celebration.

No intentions to give boring lectures on electrons spin and anti spin but instead we will try to revisit the "forever spinning" motto through things that rotate on themselves, whirl, swing round and round, revolve rapidly, etc…This trip will definitely bring us beyond the usual engineering fields opening this blog to new borders. "Spinning ideas" will be derived  from our daily life, architecture, paintings, sculpture, literature, film, music, etc... Was Georges Braque not saying "Avec l'Age, l'Art et la Vie ne font qu'un/With Ageing, Art and Life become a single thing" *

Let's start this  "forever spinning" series with a simple sketch specially made for MSG-4 :-)

Artist view of spinning MSG...

 Credit: Oscar Aubry, 2015

To be continued in separated posts...

Family picture (1)

Just before the Ascension Day break, the ESA team got an opportunity to make a family picture in the S1 high bay.

From left to right: Paul, Stéfan, Elaine, François, Cyril

A good opportunity to thank Paul, MTG Project Manager, before he returns to ESTEC, for the few days he spent with the MSG team and his warm encouragement and support in this campaign.

(C9) Ready for battery recondioning

As already mentioned in (C8), MICE #3 has now been installed. The output parameters (temperature, relative humidity and air flow rate) have been validated and alarms properly set. Everything is now in place for the battery reconditioning (charge/discharge). This test that will last four days is planned to start on next Monday (18/05) at the earliest as activity cannot be left unattended (no activities on Thursday 14/05, Ascension day, and on Sunday  17/05). The two batteries will be de-stored from the cold chamber and placed on the table opposite to the boas.

 

View of the 2 boas installed on the table  (12/05)

The erection of the RF (Radio Frequency) mast has now been completed and it has been entered in the S1B clean hall for tests planned in a very near future.

In parallel, a system tests to check that the Spacecraft is as "healthy" as when it was in Cannes is being prepared. So far, activities are running nominally :-)

Vernissage

 In the MSG-3 blog post, "spin me a colourful day", we already talked about Shunyam. This Dutch artist enriched the MSG programme since the very beginning with joyful paintings, posters, stickers, pads... Her pictural motives were used on many Public Relations (PR) items during the four campaigns. Today we invite readers of this blog to a premiere: A dedicated exhibition showing for the first time, next to each other, all the paintings she specially made for each MSG spacecraft.

• MSG-1 - In this first painting, a satellite floats in a light purple sky. On the coast, cut along a diagonal line, palm trees and flowers stand up on the foreground looking at this funny bird. The figurative composition obviously evokes the French Guyana coast with its exotic flora. The simplicity of the drawing, the balance and harmony between the various objects, the warm colours contribute to the happy atmosphere of this painting.

MSG-1 Launch campaign painting (120x120) and logo, 2002

ESA

• MSG-2 - This second painting is the pendant of the first one as it is based on the same concept (diagonal line between land and sea, two dominant yellow and blue colors…), the spacecraft is playing this time with the local fauna: two colored exotic birds, a large turtle carried by a wave and few fishes. Again, the staging of this merry company around the spinning satellite gives the impression of  harmony and balance in a dynamic context.

MSG-2 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2005

Private collection

• MSG-3 - The seven years between MSG-2 and MSG-3 launches may explain the difference of the third composition with the two preceding ones. This painting is structured along the median lines of the canvas (water level and split of the banks). Two large opposite toucans  encourage with their open beaks the spinning spacecraft. Even the fishes, pulling their heads out of the water surface, seem to enjoy to the show. The three blue Morpho butterflies, Palm trees, Red gingers, Heliconia flowers remind the colourful peculiarities of the French Guyana coastal landscapes with an evident touch of reality.

MSG-3 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2012

ESA

• MSG-4 - This fourth painting introduces new comers: crocodiles and lizards. They are running here and there in a a kind of excitation mode. But is this hectic movement caused by joy or fear? The show takes place on the land. Large leaves, flowers, large animals, butterflies positioned in all directions render this composition very dense. This is amplified by the lack of perspective of the drawing. By contrast to this "Earth chaos", the upper part of the painting  is filled with a light blue area giving an impression of quietness. In this peaceful sky, MSG-4 floats alone over this agitated scenery. It is almost gone... and already envisioned its new horizons. It is time now to greet for the last time its Guyanese friends.

MSG-4 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2014

ESA

•  Bonus - This MSG painting made in 2014 was judged too abstract by management for becoming a logo to illustrate further PR items. Indeed, realistic echoes of French Guiana have completely disappeared here. Instead, a multiple interaction of a simplified shapes (cylinders and circles), produces a surprising texture which may trigger multiple interpretations: The beginning of an old super 8 amateur movie, Professor Calculus' experiment on a Colour TV set in Marlinspike Hall, a rain of stars, the bubbles of "space champagne", the forever production of full (Earth) disk images, a new theory of colours?…whatsoever, we leave readers' imagination to see this Shunyam's last MSG work their own way!

MSG and the Alph-art ? (120x120), 2014

ESA

Les îles du Salut

The ESA MSG team was in excursion on Sunday 10/05 to the Salvation Islands. At lunch time, a nice encounter attracted a lot of attention!

A Scarlet macaw eating a chicken leg in the restaurant of the Royal island after a kind of robbery

After a tour of the Royale and Saint-Joseph Islands, less colourful postcards have been compiled from a place which is at first a memorial place…