Andrew Yee[_1_]
November 10th 07, 01:43 AM
ESA News
http://www.esa.int
1 November 2007
ESA transmits first-ever telecommands to Chinese satellite
For the first time, ESA tracking stations have transmitted telecommands to a
Chinese satellite. This morning at 07:15 CET (06:15 UTC), China's mission
control reported that commands transmitted from Maspalomas station had been
successfully received by the Chang'e-1 Moon mission.
ESA ground tracking support to China's Chang'e-1 successfully started on 1
November 2007 at 04:35 CET (03:35 UTC) with the first receipt of telemetry
signals from the Chinese mission at ESA's 35m deep-space station at New
Norcia, Australia.
Two hours and 39 minutes later, the first telecommands to Chang'e-1 were
transmitted via ESA's 15m station in Maspalomas, Spain, when the Chinese
satellite was nearly 200 000 km from Maspalomas station. An hour later, the
ESA station in Kourou, French Guiana, also successfully received telemetry
and transmitted commands to Chang'e-1.
New Norcia, Maspalomas and Kourou stations are part of ESA's ESTRACK ground
station network, and are remotely controlled from the European Space
Operations Centre (ESOC), in Darmstadt, Germany.
The successful communications mark a major milestone as this is the first
time a telecommand to a Chinese spacecraft has been transmitted from an ESA
station. In addition to receipt of telemetry and transmission of
telecommands, the Maspalomas and Kourou stations also performed ranging and
Doppler measurements used to determine the spacecraft's location and
direction.
"The support began as planned and without any problems. We were confident it
would work given the extensive preparations and intensive testing we did in
close cooperation with the Chinese," said Erik Soerensen, Head of the System
Requirements and Validation Section at ESOC.
Time-line to success
This morning, engineers working in ESOC's ESTRACK Control Centre reported
the following series of events (times in CET = UTC+1):
04:35 ESA's 35m New Norcia station successfully acquired Chang'e-1
telemetry
05:15 Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC) successfully connected to New
Norcia via ESOC
05:15 BACC reported receipt of good telemetry
Marks the first time that an ESA station has received, processed and routed
telemetry signals to a Chinese control centre
05:44 ESA's Maspalomas station successfully acquired Chang'e-1 telemetry
signals
06:50 BACC successfully connected to Maspalomas and reported good telemetry
07:04 Maspalomas successfully established the up-link to Chang'e-1 and BACC
reported on-board lock
07:14 Telecommands from BACC successfully transmitted from Maspalomas
07:15 BACC reported telecommands successfully received by Chang'e-1
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQVVMHE8F_index_1.html ]
http://www.esa.int
1 November 2007
ESA transmits first-ever telecommands to Chinese satellite
For the first time, ESA tracking stations have transmitted telecommands to a
Chinese satellite. This morning at 07:15 CET (06:15 UTC), China's mission
control reported that commands transmitted from Maspalomas station had been
successfully received by the Chang'e-1 Moon mission.
ESA ground tracking support to China's Chang'e-1 successfully started on 1
November 2007 at 04:35 CET (03:35 UTC) with the first receipt of telemetry
signals from the Chinese mission at ESA's 35m deep-space station at New
Norcia, Australia.
Two hours and 39 minutes later, the first telecommands to Chang'e-1 were
transmitted via ESA's 15m station in Maspalomas, Spain, when the Chinese
satellite was nearly 200 000 km from Maspalomas station. An hour later, the
ESA station in Kourou, French Guiana, also successfully received telemetry
and transmitted commands to Chang'e-1.
New Norcia, Maspalomas and Kourou stations are part of ESA's ESTRACK ground
station network, and are remotely controlled from the European Space
Operations Centre (ESOC), in Darmstadt, Germany.
The successful communications mark a major milestone as this is the first
time a telecommand to a Chinese spacecraft has been transmitted from an ESA
station. In addition to receipt of telemetry and transmission of
telecommands, the Maspalomas and Kourou stations also performed ranging and
Doppler measurements used to determine the spacecraft's location and
direction.
"The support began as planned and without any problems. We were confident it
would work given the extensive preparations and intensive testing we did in
close cooperation with the Chinese," said Erik Soerensen, Head of the System
Requirements and Validation Section at ESOC.
Time-line to success
This morning, engineers working in ESOC's ESTRACK Control Centre reported
the following series of events (times in CET = UTC+1):
04:35 ESA's 35m New Norcia station successfully acquired Chang'e-1
telemetry
05:15 Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC) successfully connected to New
Norcia via ESOC
05:15 BACC reported receipt of good telemetry
Marks the first time that an ESA station has received, processed and routed
telemetry signals to a Chinese control centre
05:44 ESA's Maspalomas station successfully acquired Chang'e-1 telemetry
signals
06:50 BACC successfully connected to Maspalomas and reported good telemetry
07:04 Maspalomas successfully established the up-link to Chang'e-1 and BACC
reported on-board lock
07:14 Telecommands from BACC successfully transmitted from Maspalomas
07:15 BACC reported telecommands successfully received by Chang'e-1
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQVVMHE8F_index_1.html ]