Tanking ATV-3 today with 2049kg of rocket fuel

Preparing to load MMH Fuel onto ATV3. Credit: ESA/C. Beskow

This sent in this AM from (a sleepy) Charlotte Beskow in Kourou, where teams today are loading MMH (Monomethylhydrazine – ‘hydrazine rocket fuel’) on board ATV-3 – Ed.

Today I under-slept… I can blame it on the fact that we will begin MMH fuelling preparations at 06:00 – or on my deteriorating eyesight (I couldn’t read the alarm clock very well and only realised my mistake as I glanced at the wall clock before leaving at 04:45!).

We did the inspection of the MMH fuel loading set-up yesterday evening. It is fairly straightforward and consists of a big storage tank (containing 2,900 kg of MMH), 2 filters, a loading panel, a bubble tank (to ensure that the loaded MMH is free of bubbles), piping to the ATV, a line to recover the gas that is expelled as the fuel enters the tank, a waste tank (two, to be exact) and a cold trap which liquefies the fuel vapours (easier and safer to transport).

The system is set up for closed-loop operation which means that in case something goes wrong, the loaded fuel can be emptied back into the Storage tank.

This short paragraph translates, of course, into a lot of hoses, valves and procedures to ensure that we load clean fuel in a safe manner. Just as with loading of Russian fuel (which we did last week) only the Scape-suited operators are actually in the clean room. The test conductor, quality control, safety officers and the ESA representatives are in a separate room following the operations via camera and radio.

In total we are loading a total of 2049 kg of MMH. This will be done in one continuous operation by 9 teams. Estimated duration 30 hours.

More photos below