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.
