MSG-3 on flight adaptor

Operations to prepare MSG-3 to move the BAF (Final Assembly Building) have continued. On 22/06/2012, MSG-3 was moved from the fuel stand to the flight adaptor. This is considered as an hazardous operation as the spacecraft was fuelled while moving.
The few pictures below give a flavor of this activity, from the starting point, the fuel stand, to the adaptor (which is visible on the left hand side).

1- De-clamping the spacecraft.

2-The lift from the adaptor is carefully controlled by visual inspection (Jean-René) and communication with the crane operator in case of need. In this ascending critical phase, the crane is operated by Thales as slow as possible.

3- During the lateral transfer, the crane is still using a slow speed mode to prevent any uncontrolled moves. At this moment the lower part of the spacecraft is fully visible (for the last time). This is the right moment then for the Quality Control (Salvatore) to take few pictures.

...this is almost what can be seen:

 4-other people are interested to record this moment: the Arianespace TV for Public Relations and communication purposes.

5- This is also a critical phase. Happy landing (almost made) . When MSG-3 is 800 mm far from the adaptor, operating responsibility is transferred to the ASTRIUM team (contracted by Arianespace) under supervision of Thales.

6-Still time to get out before to get a free ticket for space:-)

7-Job completed: MSG-3 stands on its flight adaptor. In the sequence, this step is immediately followed by clamping MSG-3 with the flight clamp band on the adaptor.

Completion of the MMH fuelling

Today 21/06/2012 at 13:30, 365 kgs of MMH (liquid fuel) were successfully loaded into the MSG-3 spacecraft . After the MON (liquid oxidizer) filling, this step ended the fuelling activity of the spacecraft. In total, the MSG-3 dry mass has been increased of about one ton of propellant. The completion of the fuelling phase will be fully achieved when the decontamination of the Fuelling Ground Support Equipment (FGSE) will be made. This activity is planned in the next days but is independent of the spacecraft coming operations.
The few pictures below give an insight on the "dressing" of the fuel team at the EPCU-S5E (08:45 a.m.) before the MMH fuelling started.

SCAPE suit "wardrobe".  (SCAPE: Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble)

SCAPE suits are extremely heavy and each fuel man needs support from a CSG staff  for donning  the suit.

From left to right: Gérald and Eric for the Thales fuelling team (almost ready) in SCAPE suits.

Departure of the fuel team from S5E building to S5B with a dedicated transport.

Post Scripum:
As the activity is successfully completed as this message is being published, let's say Bravo with a big applause the Thales team!

Above, the fuelling team for the "pissaladière" party at the Hotel that take traditionally place after the fuelling. A special thank to Gérard who cooked himself the pissaladère.
From left to right:
Maurice, Alain, Gérald. Gérard, Ferran (ESA), Kevin (behind), Jean-Pierre, Eric
Next rendez-vous for MSG-4?

Flight adaptor OK

As part of the POC activities, an inspection of the flight adaptor has taken place today 20/06/2102 at EPCU S5B. This mechanical part is quiet essential as it it is the direct interface between the launcher and the MSG-3 spacecraft. A clamp band will secure and tighten the spacecraft on this adaptor.
In flight, few minutes after lift off, six springs around the upper ring will push the spacecraft away from the adaptor after the activated pyrotechnic devices will open the clamp band. At this moment of the mission, the separation of the spacecraft from the launcher adaptor will take place. This will be monitored by two switches located on the top flange.

Inside the adaptor, Thales mechanical engineer checks carefully the position of the accelerometers that will record during launch the level of shocks seen by the lower part of the spacecraft particularly during the fairing and the clamp band opening.

A separate inspection of the bare clamp band was also part of today activity.
Worth to mention that the adaptor and the clamp band are manufactured by RUAG Sweden. A RUAG team is at CSG for completing the final preparation of these two  mechanical parts.

MSG-3 will be mated/clamped on the adaptor on 22/06/2012 at EPCU S5B and then loaded on the the CCU (Container de Charge Utile/Payload Container) for a transfer to BAF panned on 25/06/2012.

POC has started

Let's start with a good picture of the fuelling  released by Arianespace giving an nice overview on the fuelling activity in S5B at the moment....

Credits Arianespace

While MSG-3 fuelling has continued with MON filling completion today, MSG-3 launch campaign has achieved another important milestone: Entering a new phase called POC. POC stands for Plan d'Opération Combiné/Combined Operation plan. This activity starts at Launch minus 12 working days (L-12). POC is in fact a common planning with our co-passenger (Echosar-17) that thoroughly details all activities to be performed in BAF under the Arianespace responsibility on the launcher. BAF (Batiment d'Assembage Final/Final Assembly Building) function has already been addressed in this blog (refer to BAF Acceptance successful or From BIL to BAF messages).
The first meeting of the POC took place today 19/06/2012 where all  players of this VA207 campaign i.e  MSG-3, Echostar-17, CSG teams were face to face under Arianespace leadership. During the next 12 working days before the launch (05/07/2012), all tasks are defined hour per hour, day by day and all responsibilities carefully assigned. It is comparable to a  clockwork mechanism.
Daily during this POC phase, a meeting makes a status on payload integration on the Ariane 5 launcher and gives a green light for the activities of the day after.
Echostar-17 entered actively the POC phase today (L-12) as it will be, according the POC sequence, the first to be integrated into the launcher fairing (upper position). Its transfer to the BAF is foreseen on 20/06/2012. Then, MSG-3 after having completed the second part of the fuelling with MMH propellant will enter the POC at L-9 (i.e. on 22/06/2012) and will reach the BAF on 25/06/2012 transported by the CCU-2 (Container de Charge Utile/ Payload Container). Refer to "love letters" message for more details on CCU-2. Once at BAF, MSG-3 will be integrated in the lower part of the launcher fairing.
The outcome of the first POC daily meeting today confirmed that all lights are green to carry on with the POC!

Spin me a colourful day

Many designers and sometimes known artists are keen to represent spacecrafts, draw posters, create logos, etc...  the outcome of their work is used by projects to promote the image of the spacecraft and to help people who are not in the space business to better understand the goal(s) of the mission.
Since MSG-1 in 2002, ESA project asked a famous Dutch Painter, Shunyam, to design MSG posters, stickers as well as motives that have been used for many Public Relation items. This tradition has been continued with MSG-3 with a dedicated painting:

This new painting recently released, reflects perfectly, with its warm and vivid colors, those of the French Guiana. Shunyam who is very skilled in depicting animals, perfectly succeeded to represent the most beautiful ones found around CSG in a very balanced composition. All of them including trees and flowers look at MSG: the spinning satellite represented on a sunny sky, seems to be the only cause of this merry atmosphere...In fact one could imagine that they would ask the little flying object: Spin me a colourful day!
This idea has been taken over for other launch campaign goodies, paradoxically, ... raincoats:-)

Credits: Stéfane

The EUMETSAT sticker is more sober: just a simplified sketch of the MSG spacecraft but nicely reflecting the rainbow colors. These colors are those of the visible spectrum i.e. those that can be detected by the human eye. The rainbow is also a symbol associating rain and sun, two opposite weather types on Earth.

Credits: EUMETSAT

THALES got its own artists and the outcome is also extremely successful (and colorful): Three colorful square boxes for M, S and G each of them filled with very expressive sketches. The message is in fact simple and quite clear, so that no real decoding is needed: In one glance one can get the full scope of the mission.

Credits: Thales

Could we just propose a new slogan for this nice one?  MSG, La météo au fil du temps! 
(Let's get linguists to find a correct translation into English :-)

MON fuelling started

On Saturday 16/06/2012, the preparation for the MSG-3 fuelling started in EPCU S5B hall as planned. The first propellant to be injected is the MON (the oxidizer). The corresponding drum has been moved from the storage room to the S5B clean hall as seen above on the right hand side under the crane.
The completion of the preparatory activities were related to the final connection of pipes and tubes from the drum to the spacecraft (blue caps) via the kart (Fuelling Ground Support Equipment).

On Monday 18/06/2012 the MON fuelling started. This hazardous activity is performed by a specialised group of people (called "ergoliers" in French) who perform in SCAPE suits (Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble). Their activity is monitored from a remote room through video, radio and data links. The few pictures below are taken from the monitor screens the only place where the fuelling can be witnessed. This explains their poor quality.

There are two teams of two staffs operating in four hour shifts. A total of 601,5 kgs of MON will be injected in two tanks. This will be achieved by six injections of MON today and two others tomorrow 19/06/2012. During these active phases, to prevent any mistakes, each fueller check the work of his colleague, under the supervision of the remote control room.

Stabilisation phases are necessary between injections to make sure that propellant quantity is equally split between the two tanks. During these stabilisation phases, fuellers are requested to remain in the S5B Main Hall. In this phase, they may take a rest to recover from the extremely exhausting (physically and mentally) injection phase. Here below one of the fueller is in resting position for his head, the weight of the heavy helmet being particularly tiring.

The weight of the remaining propellant in the drum is measured by mean of a load cell (with a back up) and can be permanently read. The exact quantity of propellant injected into the spacecraft is calculated in real time by deducting what is read to the known total weight of the propellant in the drum.

Note: the MMH read on the TV monitor does not mean that MMH propellant is fuelled but it is the identification of the two cameras (Monitoring Main Hall :-)