Jacques van Oene
September 5th 05, 10:52 AM
CryoSat arrives safely at launch site in Russia
2 September 2005
After leaving the Space Test Centre in Germany on 29 August, CryoSat has
safely arrived at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 km north of Moscow,
Russia. CryoSat is scheduled for launch on 8 October 2005 at 15h02 UTC.
The convoy was initially transported by truck from IABG
(Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) in Ottobrunn to Munich airport,
where it was stored in a hangar over night before being loaded onto an
Antonov-124 cargo aircraft for the three and a half hour flight to Talagi
Airport, Archangel in Russia.
The spacecraft, however, did not travel alone - it was accompanied by a
whole host of vital support equipment resulting in the shipment weighing in
at around 60 tonnes and valuing some 80 million euros. The CryoSat satellite
was packed in its own nitrogen-pressurized container, while nine other
containers housed items such as racks of electrical equipment to operate and
test the spacecraft, and heavy mechanical equipment to lift and turn the
satellite allowing engineers to gain overall access to the structure in the
Integration Facility at the launch site.
An advance team was already in Archangel, and after they had ensured that
everything was in order to receive the cargo on arrival, they gave the
go-ahead for the flight from Munich to take-off. After a safe landing in
Archangel in the evening of 30 August, the convoy was transported by truck
to the local train station where it was lifted onto railcars. For reasons of
safety and security the special train made its journey through the night,
arriving in Plesetsk on 1 September. So that the cargo wasn't at risk of
being damaged the train had to travel extremely slowly. It therefore took
most of the night to cover the 200 km journey southward to CryoSat's final
destination.
CryoSat's safe arrival in Plesetsk marks an important milestone in the
project. The shipment was carried out with relative ease. Guy Ratier,
CryoSat Project Manager commented, "Everything went according to plan. It is
not the first time that ESA has used an Antonov, a fantastic plane indeed,
to transport satellites to their launch site. Loading the plane was just a
routine operation. The train transport between Archangel and Plesetsk was
also uneventful, thanks to the wide experience gained by Eurockot and
Khrunichev during previous campaigns. For sure, I consider this
transportation step as a very good start towards a successful launch
campaign."
CryoSat is the first in the series of Earth Explorer missions to be
launched. Earth Explorers are small, inexpensive missions designed to
provide some fast answers to a specific aspect of the Earth's environment.
In this case, CryoSat is to determine rates of change in the thickness of
marine and continental ice cover.
With speed and a limited budget in mind, the CryoSat project have found an
elegant solution for launch, that being a Russian Rockot vehicle, which is
actually a converted SS-19 ballistic missile launcher with an additional
Breeze-KM upper stage. CryoSat will be the first ESA mission launched on
Rockot followed by the Earth Explorers GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State
Ocean Circulation Explorer) in 2006 and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean
Salinity) in 2007.
Now that CryoSat has arrived, unloading and unpacking is underway and the
launch campaign will begin. Members of the CryoSat team in Plesetsk will
oversee the thorough final testing period before the satellite is eventually
jointed to the fairing and prepared for launch on 8 October.
--
--------------------------------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
2 September 2005
After leaving the Space Test Centre in Germany on 29 August, CryoSat has
safely arrived at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 km north of Moscow,
Russia. CryoSat is scheduled for launch on 8 October 2005 at 15h02 UTC.
The convoy was initially transported by truck from IABG
(Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) in Ottobrunn to Munich airport,
where it was stored in a hangar over night before being loaded onto an
Antonov-124 cargo aircraft for the three and a half hour flight to Talagi
Airport, Archangel in Russia.
The spacecraft, however, did not travel alone - it was accompanied by a
whole host of vital support equipment resulting in the shipment weighing in
at around 60 tonnes and valuing some 80 million euros. The CryoSat satellite
was packed in its own nitrogen-pressurized container, while nine other
containers housed items such as racks of electrical equipment to operate and
test the spacecraft, and heavy mechanical equipment to lift and turn the
satellite allowing engineers to gain overall access to the structure in the
Integration Facility at the launch site.
An advance team was already in Archangel, and after they had ensured that
everything was in order to receive the cargo on arrival, they gave the
go-ahead for the flight from Munich to take-off. After a safe landing in
Archangel in the evening of 30 August, the convoy was transported by truck
to the local train station where it was lifted onto railcars. For reasons of
safety and security the special train made its journey through the night,
arriving in Plesetsk on 1 September. So that the cargo wasn't at risk of
being damaged the train had to travel extremely slowly. It therefore took
most of the night to cover the 200 km journey southward to CryoSat's final
destination.
CryoSat's safe arrival in Plesetsk marks an important milestone in the
project. The shipment was carried out with relative ease. Guy Ratier,
CryoSat Project Manager commented, "Everything went according to plan. It is
not the first time that ESA has used an Antonov, a fantastic plane indeed,
to transport satellites to their launch site. Loading the plane was just a
routine operation. The train transport between Archangel and Plesetsk was
also uneventful, thanks to the wide experience gained by Eurockot and
Khrunichev during previous campaigns. For sure, I consider this
transportation step as a very good start towards a successful launch
campaign."
CryoSat is the first in the series of Earth Explorer missions to be
launched. Earth Explorers are small, inexpensive missions designed to
provide some fast answers to a specific aspect of the Earth's environment.
In this case, CryoSat is to determine rates of change in the thickness of
marine and continental ice cover.
With speed and a limited budget in mind, the CryoSat project have found an
elegant solution for launch, that being a Russian Rockot vehicle, which is
actually a converted SS-19 ballistic missile launcher with an additional
Breeze-KM upper stage. CryoSat will be the first ESA mission launched on
Rockot followed by the Earth Explorers GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State
Ocean Circulation Explorer) in 2006 and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean
Salinity) in 2007.
Now that CryoSat has arrived, unloading and unpacking is underway and the
launch campaign will begin. Members of the CryoSat team in Plesetsk will
oversee the thorough final testing period before the satellite is eventually
jointed to the fairing and prepared for launch on 8 October.
--
--------------------------------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info