From Charlotte at the ATV launch campaign in Kourou over night – Ed.

Monday 30 January

During the very wet and rainy weekend which just passed, the propellant loading teams were busy preparing for the final loading of MON-3, set for Tuesday, 31 January; the teams will start loading 3,360 kg at 06:00. It is done in one continuous operation and it will take them until Friday morning.

The set up is very similar to the loading of MMH, and everything was carefully checked this afternoon.

In parallel, the ‘late’ cargo has started to arrive. ESA cargo, foreseen to arrive today, actually arrived at the Guiana airport yesterday. And tomorrow’s cargo arrived today, so we had a busy evening doing the unpacking. Now all the bags are on their trolleys inside the locked cargo room. Tomorrow, a careful check will be done to see that everything matches up.

— Charlotte