Epilogue

Dear all,

Today 08/07/2012, some team members have started to pack their respective gears and equipment at EPCU S5 while some others are starting their trip back to Europe.

As the MSG-3 launch campaign, performed during this spring 2012 is now progressively coming to an end, it is time to leave Kourou and say good bye to each of you. It has been a great pleasure to share these exciting moments together.

For a little bit more than three months, more than 90 posts have been published (almost in real time) and illustrated by about 650 pictures. The goal was to keep the link with people not in Kourou and to tell them what was going on here at CSG (...it seems that even people in Kourou came regularly to visit these pages... :-). In parallel of the campaign reporting, we tried also to report few aspects of this unique and still very unknown place called French Guiana.  Considering the positive feed back we received as well as the number of connections, the outcome has definitely exceeded our expectations. After the campaign, we may consider to collect these pages on a CD or a DVD together with some other Launch Campaign material.

It is impossible to conclude this last message without emphasizing the outstanding performance of the THALES team (the Prime Contractor of the MSG programme): the talent and dedication of each individual in all disciplines has made this success possible. Congratulations!

Now, what is better than looking through a window to guess what the future will be?

Here above you can see a rare (or let's say unusual) picture taken in the THALES clean room at Cannes in December 2011. At that time the MSG-3 solar panels were put on a jig to enable an exhaustive solar cell inspection. One can see on this picture that through the large SEVIRI "hole" it is not  Earth (as it should be seen from space) but the 4th Model of the MSG series, i.e. MSG-4 spacecraft...

Through this "window" we can contemplate our future, i.e. the job waiting for us for the next two years: complete integration, testing and getting MSG-4 ready for a launch early 2015 (TBC) in order to take over MSG-2 which will become 10 years old at that time.

But back to recent events, roughly 48 hours after the launch, last news from the MSG-3 LEOP team are good: there are still few important milestones to be completed in the next 10 days but the first critical steps have been successfully completed. Our "baby" is in good health and doing well. Click here for a LEOP status update.

Before to leave you, thanks again for your interest and your friendly support.

From French Guiana with love!

Kirill Blogovitch

08/07/2012