Yesterday, the military forces were busy finalising the fairing. They sealed the various openings used to lock the fairing halves, painted the fairing in bright white and applied the ESA and Eurockot logos. The Russians also did some electrical checks. In parallel, the Thales team started packing for the return home.
Signing fairing nose tip. (ESA)
In the early afternoon, the satellite was switched on followed by some checks – everything was fine.
Painting the fairing. (ESA)
While this was happening we all got rather emotional as all the teams were allowed to access the higher part of the fairing and sign the sticker. We added thoughts and messages to wish our baby well for launch and its life in orbit.
Sentinel-3A fairing sticker signed off. (ESA)
This was really the last moment we could ‘touch’ the fairing and say good-bye and it was evident how emotional all of us felt.
At this point we would like also to mention another peculiarity we discovered in the past days when we saw the Chief of the military forces in charge of Rockot activities busy studying astronomical maps and making copies of pages.
Star map used to trace Libra constellation for Rockot launch number 25. (ESA)
It is a tradition to associate each Rockot launch with a constellation made of a number of ‘bright’ stars equal to the number of the launch.
The Sentinel-3A will be Rockot launch number 25. The Chief selected the constellation of Libra as around it, it is possible to trace a line connecting 25 bright stars. Metaphorically, Libra the Scales serves as an age-old symbol of divine justice, harmony and balance.
A painting mask of this constellation was produced and depicted on a lateral panel of the Breeze stage, to accompany the flight.
Rocket launch number 25 gets Libra constellation. (ESA)
Leaving emotions and traditions aside, later in the afternoon some of the team members went to the Mission Control Center to start setting up for the day of the launch – 16 February.
Standing by their baby before sticker signing. (ESA)
Some work still needs to be done in the coming days to ensure all telephones are programmed with the key numbers and that the connections with the various locations are working.
In conclusion, the GREEN remains GREEN for the launch!
This evening some of our people, which were involved in the last inspection of the satellite configuration, will start their trip back home. The core group will now reduce……
Weather in Plesetsk: +2/0 °C, cloudy and…..very slippery
For information about our Sentinel-3 mission visit www.esa.int/sentinel-3
From the ESA Sentinel-3A team at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia.
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