IMG_6219The latest installment of Charlotte Beslow’s reports from Kourou, covering Friday, Saturday and yesterday. Thanks, Charlotte. – DGS

My guess is they are finishing up a good carnival night. Ah well! As we drive off to work they will pop into bed. Weather permitting it will be the other way around on Wednesday morning…!

Friday, 11 February 2011

I go to CDL3 for the pre-launch meeting. Arianespace presents the status of the launcher, explaining any fine, technical points that might come up during the final review, so that we are given the opportunity to pose questions and discuss things before the big meeting Sunday. The presentation is clear and to the point. Final approval should be given Sunday.

Afterwards, I go to the front desk of the CDL to ask where I can buy these great ATV shirts that many people are walking around in. “She is not here today” the man answers. “She only comes in Thursdays.” No problem, I answer: I’ll get one next week… No sooner have the words been spoken than my brain sends up a warning flag: ‘Hey, wait a second. You will be in Toulouse Thursday. We are launching Tuesday, remember?’ Yes, indeed – we are launching Tuesday!

Almost all the paperwork is finished. The staffing for the expert group in Toulouse is on my desk. It is a huge table where each position is colour coded and it gives the essential information: i.e. which position is manned when (in both local time and GMT), who is on call, which operations are scheduled, how many meals do we need to order, and are we respecting the legislation on legal working hours and a few other useful things. My colleagues smile at me because everything I do seems to be accompanied by spreadsheets and the EST manning is no different.

It was actually one of the Astrium test leaders who told me several years ago that anyone who thought they could run the ATV programme without Excel should look for another job (that is probably not the exact way she said it though…).

Arianespace also use Excel: They have sent us their count-down timeline and my colleague is busy slotting all the steps into our own procedure, which, in turn, maps the Astrium procedure and the Toulouse procedures. The advantage with their spreadsheet is that it automatically calculates the local time (and the GMT time) as a function of the lift-off time. Before launch it is not too hard since everyone uses lift-off time. Between liftoff and ATV separation, we all use lift-off time – but after that it gets harder since Toulouse then uses separation time as the reference, whereas the team in the control centre here in Kourou still use lift-off time. Add to that the GMT shown on the wall and the local time on our watches and computers… and it is easy to get mixed up.

ATV-CC have done the calculations of ISS orbit vs ATV launch and given us the draft inputs: H0 is 22:13:27 on 15 February – we pass the info to Arianespace. Official H0 will be given Sunday.

Today we also held what we hope to be one of the last Friday after-work ‘get togethers.’ If all goes according to plan it should be the last one before lift off. Time to clean out the fridge… and the cheese is NOT going back to Europe!

Saturday, 12 February 2011

You can feel a new tension in the atmosphere. The hotel is filling up and at breakfast I now have to look around for an empty table. Actually, I can probably sit down almost anywhere since most of the tables are occupied either by current colleagues or past colleagues!

It really is a small world. A little later I am standing in a small shop, browsing through a few items. A lady is trying on dresses and chatting with her friends. Suddenly I hear: “Mais, c’est Charlotte!!” I look up to see who is calling my name and she is looking straight at me. “We were neighbours at Terrasses du Lac some twelve or thirteen years ago! Remember when you served us Maracudja pie with popcorn kernels in it?” Even fourteen years later I colour slightly at the memory of one of my less-successful attempts at cooking. Fantastic! You walk into a shop, fifteen years later and bump into your old friends. She was following the launch preparations (as do most of Kourou one way or another) and her husband had flown off to Adelaide some days earlier to take care of the tracking station there (the tracking station is used to follow one of the final phases of the Ariane launch).

Speaking about tracking stations, another item worth mentioning is that in order to follow the last flight phase that concerns us, i.e. the separation, CNES have to set up an additional tracking station in New Zealand. If I understood it correctly, a farmer has let CSG use one of his fields to set up a mobile station, just for us!!! This truly is a worldwide effort!!!

The rain keeps pouring down and the gusts of wind accompanying the rain are impressive. On my way back from the office I needed to do an errand but the rain started before I got to my destination. Both the jacket and the umbrella were in the trunk. Oh well – I’ll just sit and wait it out… ten minutes later it was still pouring down and it felt like watching a movie in the 1950s. One where they simulate rain by pouring water (a bit unevenly) on the stage set… except this was real life and there was no way you could leave your car without getting drenched in three seconds flat. Impressive. In the end I had to hop to it, opened the door, dashed the two yards to a sheltering roof, and then sprinted along the wall of the house, skipping over the slimier pieces of concrete to avoid falling flat on my face. My shoes have still not dried. Hopefully it will clear enough by Tuesday.

Sunday, 13 February 2011

I come down to breakfast at 06:30. RAL (the final launcher readiness review – which is a major event), begins at 08:00 sharp and it is going to be a long day. Several tables are already occupied by colleagues. Clean cut, serious and properly attired for a day in the office – a marked contrast compared to the group gathered around the coffee table. Girls brightly dressed in pink and flashy colours. Guys porting tattoos from wrist to shoulder… all giggling helplessly and having some difficulty in getting the coffee to pour into the cup…  My guess is they are finishing up a good carnival night. Ah well! As we drive off to work they will pop into bed for some well-deserved sleep. Weather permitting it will be the other way around on Wednesday morning…

Streets get flooded very quickly and the water literally rips out chunks of the road. With the road covered in water, you cannot see the holes so you have to reply on memory (the holes tend to reappear in the same spot, which helps a bit). In other words you have to drive very carefully, but on my way to the RAL I notice that someone has been out during the night, pouring gravel into the biggest holes. Good thing.

On my way back from the RAL is see that the security people have started deploying around the site. Another sign that launch is imminent.

Only a few more days to go before the real fun starts!!!