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!