Diary from a space project : Feb 5

ESA’s Charlotte Beskow sent in her latest Kourou Diary update last night: a very nice review of the past incredibly busy week at Kourou – which included closing the hatch and lowering the fairing over ATV. Today’s post also contains some nice snaps of French Guiana seen from 1000m up!. Thanks Charlotte!

D – 8 : The week in review
Kourou, 5 February 2011 – Saturday

Time flies… At the beginning of the week, we were back in ‘nominal’ mode, i.e. any of the delays had been recovered and the following Saturday–Sunday could be treated as ‘margin’. By Tuesday [1 Feb] the margin was in play. But first things first: Last Sunday…

Sunday, 30 January – rest day

Arianespace and ESA invited all the teams for a social event outside Kourou. Before selecting the venue, the organisers had carefully weighed the weather report… you do not really want to do any outdoor activities in the rainy season if the likelihood is that you’ll get drenched. So far, we have been fairly lucky since I came out on 20 January. Generally, the days are sunny, occasionally interrupted by a heavy downpour. This Sunday, the weather held and we had a full day of go-cart competitions, paint-ball, 4-wheel driving on a forest trail, etc. The go-cart and the forest trail were the most popular ones and we all got spattered with mud from head to toe.

Go cart racing was a surprisingly sweaty business: Just putting on the helmet required a  bit of willpower on my part. The lining was soaked from the previous user(s) and it smelled! All the frustrations, competitiveness, urge to win (or lack thereof) came out in these races – but after each heat, everyone headed straight for the bar to cool down.

The site also had an ultralight motorised (ULM) aircraft strip. I booked an initiation tour – have you ever flown in a ULM? Basically you sit in a moulded seat, supported by a metal frame and with a small engine with a big propeller just behind you. The pilot sits in front and there is a big delta wing on top. You bump your way down a grassy track, line up, push the throttle forward and up you go!

I was expecting us to skim the treetops at a low altitude, but to my great pleasure he took me up to 1000m, which was great! Imagine sitting at 1000m seeing the Earth beneath your knees. It was very windy (of course) and I began to understand why the pilot was wearing a jacket.

Up there, it was not quite as sunny as it had seemed below. Actually, big clouds had gathered but we still had a great view of the road between Cayenne and Kourou, the mouth of the Kourou river, Macouria, etc. From above, you really appreciate the expanse of forest… at the end of the allotted time we headed back – but we had left it a little late and a big rain cloud and a high wind was bearing down on the landing strip. The pilot made the turns and lined up with the grass strip but crosswinds and the rain threw us around so much that he had to increase power and skip the landing. We made a few sharp turns and headed out towards the ocean to escape the rain which by now was pelting us. I spared a thought for the go cart helmet that I had frowned upon such a short time ago… it would have come in handy!

We spend the next 15 minutes slipping through gaps in the clouds at 5000 feet waiting for the shower to pass and then we came back for a second attempt. The ULM bucketed towards the strip and I found myself checking that my seatbelt was securely in place. I did not want to get thrown out. A great gust pushed us off course and – Vrooomm! – he increased power and took us up again. This time we did three quick turns and put down before the wind had a chance to prevent it. It was a wonderful first ULM flight!!! And the lunch that followed was great!

Monday 31 January  D-11

The mission manager and I headed for the Jupiter control room [Arianespace’s main launch control room – Ed.]. The morning was dedicated to a simulation of the countdown between the ATV Control Center in Toulouse, the ATV and its associated Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) – used to check out spacecraft and payloads prior to launch – here at CSG, and the Mission Manager in the CSG control room.

This simulation served to ensure that all our routines and cross checks were properly coordinated and synchronised. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting with your headset on and your procedure in front of you, waiting for a confirmation from the other party. Without this message, you cannot go to the next step and as you sit there, waiting, you see the seconds and minutes ticking by – and your brain is busy calculating the impact, the delay, evaluating the what ifs, wondering what on Earth is going on – asking yourself if you should call them to ask, or if that risks making matters worse.

When all is going well, it is quite fun and you get a chance to get familiar with the voice loops, the headsets, the monitors, the clocks, etc.

Tuesday – Thursday 1-3 February

The teams were busy with final activities, closing the ATV hatch, making sure the cargo carrier was sealed, removing the protections on all equipment and checking all the MLI (multi-layer insulation) blankets a final time before the encapsulation.

In parallel, we held a number of meetings, reviewed procedures and documents, finalised cargo safety certificates, checked air quality inside ATV, prepared for the upcoming formal reviews during which we must show that all is ready, etc. and etc.

Today, Saturday, 5 February, I have a hard time remembering what was done on which day since all days tend to follow the same pattern and all days have been crammed with continuous planning and replanning!

The fairing was scheduled to be placed on ATV at D-8, Thursday, 3 February. By Tuesday, a few unexpected events had made the Thursday impossible to meet and encapsulation was rescheduled for Friday. Thursday was therefore our last chance to do anything on ATV.

The final check point to authorise fairing installation (encapsulation) means that we go through the ‘as-runs’ to check that all is done. Late Thursday night we were reasonably confident with what we had. All these activities delayed the fairing keypoint until 21:00 Thursday night; as were were summarising the various points, the final inspections were still going on at the BAF. We agreed to meet again at 06:30 the following morning. That would give us enough time to conclude by 11:00 when the meeting with Arianespace would give the thumbs up for fairing.

That night the lights never went off in the offices!

I dropped into bed at 01:00, slept a few hours and was back in the office on Friday at 06:30 for the continuation of the previous night’s meeting. In the morning, as I woke up, I checked my Blackberry and discovered a message sent only a few hours earlier by one of my diligent colleagues who wanted one more item checked.

The 06:30 morning started with that topic. The instinct is to react quickly when you are short of time but at the same time you have to be very careful. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Many big problems are caused by trying to quickly improvise a correction on a small, relatively insignificant anomaly. After collecting some more data and having another round of discussion, we were confident that all was fine and that fairing installation could go ahead.

By 14:00, Friday, 4 February, the fairing was on top of ATV. It was an eventful, but tiring week!

The Astrium site manager then had the very good idea to invite us all for dinner, which made the Friday evening a very nice event!

So, what am I doing in the office today, 5 February, on a Saturday? Well, there are a number of things to do next week and it will be just as busy as the one that just ended. Besides, it is pouring outside! 🙂

More news next week…

Charlotte