Following its arrival at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite remained in its transport container for 24 hours to acclimatise.
Extracting Sentinel-1C from its transport container. (ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG–P. Piron)
While Sentinel-1C rested, the team was busy unpacking and setting up all the equipment necessary for health checks and validation. The equipment used is known as the electrical ground support equipment or EGSE for short.
Some of this equipment allows engineers to communicate with the satellite through a process called telecommand, while other parts are used to check the satellite’s instruments.
Once Sentinel-1C had fully acclimatised, the transportation container was opened, and Sentinel-1C was greeted with a warm welcome.
It was then moved to the cleanroom so that the engineers could start with the first checks to make sure the satellite was in good health following its journey.
Into the cleanroom for Sentinel-1C. (ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG– P. Piron)
Secured to its multipurpose trolley, the engineering team can manoeuvre the satellite to many different positions to check the satellite’s vital signs.
Sentinel-1C on its way to being vertical. (ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG–S. Martin)
The first position needed was to have Sentinel-1C vertical.
Sentinel-1C upright. (ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG–S. Martin)
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission provides all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery for the global monitoring of Earth’s land and oceans – supporting environmental management, disaster response and climate change research.
From the Sentinel-1C launch campaign team in Kourou.
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