The Meteosat heritage and future

METEOSAT is a European satellite programme that started in the seventies within the ESRO organisation (as shown by the handbook below dated October 1974).

A artist view of the Meteosat Operational Programme (MOP)

Credits EUMETSAT

 The first launch of  Meteosat-1  took place on 23rd of November 1977 and was followed by a series of seven spacecrafts. The mission was supported by an imager called MVIRI (for Meteosat Visible and Infra Red Imager). Note that Meteosat-7 launched on September 3rd 1997 is still working  to date!

The Meteosat programme was continued with Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) series. This new generation was bringing  significant improvements both on the platform and the Payload:

• SEVIRI Imager payload with 12 channels  enhanced imaging (3 chanels for MOP)
• Bi-propellant unified propulsion system (Powder booster for MOP)
• 600W power demand (200W for MOP)
• 1900kgs in Geo transfer orbit (720kgs for MOP)
• design compatibility with Ariane 5 (and Soyuz in Kourou to be confirmed)

An artist view of MSG (note the black aperture which is the opening for the SEVIRI imager)

Credits ESA

Four identical MSG spacecrafts were manufactured. Two are presently in orbit and the MSG-3 (Meteosat-10) will be launch  mid June 2012.

The fourth MSG spacecraft (Meteosat-11)  is foreseen to be launched in 2015 (to be confirmed) permitting the continuity of MSG service up to the the moment  the first spacecraft of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme will take over by the end of the decade. MTG is a programme of 6 Spacecrafts: 4 Imagers and 2 Sounders. One of the most significant technological breakthrough will be introduced by the 3 axes stabilised platform. This will enable to have a continuous view on Earth not interrupted by the spinning as it is the case at the moment with Meteosat and MSG spacecraft families. MTG should guarantee access to space-acquired meteorological data until at least the late 2030s.

An artist view of MTG-I and MTG-S

Credits ESA-P Carril