(C0) MSG-4 Launch Campaign teams reached Kourou

Thales, ESA and EUMETSAT teams arrived safely in Kourou on 22/04.

We left a blooming spring in Europe to reach a completely overcast and wet French Guiana after a 10hours+ bumpy  flight (strong front winds).

No surprise: this period from March to June corresponds to the rainy season in French Guiana. This is linked to the cyclic moves over the equator of the ZIC (Zone Inter tropical de Connection) where the atmospheres of the North and South hemispheres get in contact with each other causing large amount of precipitations. At this moment of the year, the ZIC is roughly just above where we are (ca 5 deg. Latitude).

Poster at the weather forecast station located in CSG

Just a quick look through the A340 window today confirms that it is not the best moment nor place to make pictures :-)

So be patient. We'll come with more attractive pictures in the coming days.

Let's hope that these weather conditions will not delay further the VA222 launch planned now on Friday 24/04.

Teams will start activities as from 23/04 @ 09:00 am local time (5 hours difference with Continental Western Europe) with our colleagues from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) to set offices and accept the facilities where activities on  the MSG-4 Spacecraft will take place shortly. 

KB

PS: A good tip for those still to come in this period: don't forget to take your umbrella or your light rain coat :-)

Welcome again!

After the MSG-3 launch from Kourou on the 5th of July 2012, let's introduce again our new fellow, the MSG-4 spacecraft, from the place we left it, if you remember well, at the end of the MSG-3 Launch Campaign blog:

 MSG-4 view through the SEVIRI opening in  the Solat Array

… a naked MSG-4 quietly waiting in Thales Cannes (TAS-F) clean room for its turn to be groomed and eventually launched.
Today, we have reached this point where the spacecraft is about to leave Thales Cannes and to hopefully take up duty in orbit in few weeks time. The purpose of this private blog is to report on this launch campaign and to share this adventure with colleagues and families not present in French Guyana.

For those interested to get a flavour of what happened to MSG-4 since 2012 in Thales Cannes, few pictures have been gathered below to show the (re)-integration of the SEVIRI instrument and the system (re)-test till the spacecraft was eventually declared "ready" to be sent to the Kourou Space Center in French Guyana...