From BIL to BAF

Today 30/05/12 a significant event took place: The transfer of the Ariane 5 ECA from BIL (Batiment d'Integration Lanceur/ Launcher Assembly Building) to BAF (Batiment d'Assemblage Final/Final Assembly Building). This launcher transfer is a pure Arianespace activity.
On the wide angle overview below, you see the stage: BIL on the right and BAF on the left.

Between these two facilities, one dedicated to launcher integration and the other to assemble the payload(s) on the rocket, you may witness the shortest rail trip in French Guyana (ca one kilometer TBC). There is, if we are correct, no other commissioned rail tracks in this country.
The departure from BIL took place at ca 12:15 Kourou Time.

At that stage the rocket is mounted with the two solid boosters (EAP) filled with propellant. The central tank will be filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen once on the launch pad (ELA-3). For safety reasons, the speed is kept extremely slow in particular in the curve or on the railroad switches (below 5km/h TBC).

On the picture below, a closer view on the Ariane 5 ECA rocket (to be used for the next VA207 flight). The rocket stands  on the launch table rolling on the straight "high speed" section of the journey.

As showed below, the convoy is not made only of the launch table and the rocket. Few cars on the front provide all what the launcher needs for the transport: Traction, Energy, Air conditioning...

Another perspective of the rocket en route from BIL to BAF taken form CDL-3 (Centre De Lancement 3).

Approaching the BAF...

It is ca 14:00 (Kourou Time), after 45 minutes across the CSG the "Kourou Express" reached the BAF  its final destination, the master station can go for lunch :-)

As you have certainly noticed, the launcher is still missing an essential part: the upper composite made of the payload covered by the fairing. In ca 30 minutes the curtain of this high tower will fall. A rather confidential play will then carry on inside the BAF with a limited number of  people. The theater curtain will open again one day before launch for the roll out to ELA-3.
Stay with us, we'll be there. Even if at the moment we don't have a launch date yet, MSG-3 has a launcher!