On the move again

If you had popped up today at the EPCU you would have got the impression that something has changed. In contrast with the last two weeks of stand-by, everything was active as in the first days of the campaign. First, at the usual daily meeting you would have noticed few colleagues back from Cannes and Noordwijk (welcome to all of them) and second a glance towards the S5C clean room from the visitor gallery would have shown you that MSG-3 had disappeared! What happened?  this deserves at least few words of explanations.
So after two weeks of baby sitting, there is now enough information from our co-passenger to decide  moving step by step MSG-3 to the fuelling phase of the campaign. This also means that an official launch date is being consolidated and should be released by the official authorities, Arianespace, Eumetsat and ESA pretty soon.
In line with this approach, it was decided to move on 11/06 the spacecraft from its initial S5C location since the campaign started  to the "gas station" place known here as S5B. For a better understanding of this activity and the following text and pictures, we recommend, for those of our dear readers who wish to refresh their mind, to read the two past messages: Working at EPCU (dated 20/04) and Introducing S5B (dated 12/05).
Therefore, no big surprise that MSG-3 disappeared from S5C, it stands now safely as from today on the fuelling stand in S5B.
Pictures below reflect the various steps of this sequence remarkably performed by Thales with the support of the CSG staff.

Early this morning, MSG-3 was towed out of the S5C by Roger  driving the tug.

Credits: Thales-F

For evident logistic reasons, the convoy went through a long dedicated corridor connecting the two clean halls S5C to S5B.

Credits: Thales-F

En route, MSG-3 passed trough an airlock where the CCU (Container de Charge Utile/Paylod Container) is temporarily stored. This CCU was already introduced in a special message "love letters"dated 11/05 where its special function is explained. It is a nice shot to see them both side by side before the fuelling...next time MSG-3 will be in the CCU.

Credits: Thales-F

then below, the convoy entering the S5B clean hall its terminus destination! but the story is not over yet.

Credits: Thales-F

We are slowly reaching the end of the mechanical activities related to the preparation of the spacecraft. This for leg octopus (called C5) is used to complete work underneath MSG-3 which is not possible when it is mated on the dolly (see picture above). For instance this nice jig will permit to install few pieces of the thermal insulation blanket (MLI) which were not possible to fit on before.

On the picture below, MSG-3 is mated on the C5 for performing the operations explained above.

A transfer back to the dolly is needed to recover the adaptor ring. This adaptor (at the bottom of the spacecraft) is needed for setting properly MSG-3 on the fuel stand. Here below: MSG-3 is being transferred with the adaptor ring between the dolly and the fuelling stand.

This last picture shows MSG-3 standing on the fuelling stand (the large metallic jig supporting the spacecraft). MSG-3 will be fuelled with MON and MMH propellants in this position.

In conclusion, to date, MSG-3 is ready to fuel and teams at CSG are confident that green light for starting this important activity will be given quite soon. The transfer today from S5C to S5B can be understood as a positive sign.