Launch campaign status at L-3

No "visible" activities to report today as efforts concentrated on the launcher in the BAF and on the final preparation of the fairing (thermal and environmental controls, several inspections, red tag items, arming, closure...). These activities are exclusively under Arianespace responsibility without witnessing from the customer(s) side.
In the next days:

• L-2 (03/07/2012) will be mainly dedicated to the RAL (Revue d'Aptitude au Lancement/Launch Readiness Review). An important review mainly focussed on the Ariane 5 ECA launcher.
• L-1 (04/07/2012): Roll out of the launcher between the BAF and the ELA-3 (launch pad). This will terminate the quasi "secret phase" of the POC (Combined Operation Plan). This activity was already witnessed in May for the roll out of VA206 flight.
• L0 (05/07/2012). Launch day. The countdown will start at 9:36 am (Kourou time) for a launch window starting 9 hours later.

Below, a picture of the CSG sky when we got out of our last meeting today 02/07/2012, looking in the direction of the ELA-3 launch pad. It gives a rough idea about the light we may have for the launch as it was exatly taken at the time corresponding to our launch window on next Thursday i.e. from 18:36 to 19:05 Kourou time or 23:36 to 00:05 Paris/Asterdam/Darmstadt time zone...

We are getting closer!