Just received a note from ESA’s Daniel Paris, from the ATV engineering team. He’s in Kourou tonight, and he sent a few pictures from: 

  • The EPCU (“Ensemble de Preparation Charge Utile”) building – the Satellite Integration Building – at Kourou. This is the building where ATV-2 was integrated [assembled after shipping], tested and fueled.
  • The LBC control room (“Local Banc de Controle”), which is the Bench Control Area. This is the room where the Electrical Ground Support Equipment are located – the boxes that enable the data and other connections to ATV when it is on top of Ariane. This equipment is used to switch on ATV-2 and to monitor the vessel until lift-off.

The pictures show the ESA team in LBC room. This is the team responsible for preparing ATV-2 for lift off together with the Astrium ATV 2 industrial team.

More team pics after the jump.

From left to right Daniel PARIS, Dominique SIRUGUET, Laurent BROTHIER and Bachisio DORE