Update at H0 – 4h30 min – from Charlotte in Kourou.

We are waiting for the message that they have started to fuel Ariane (Ariane’s main stage – the EPC). The weather report so far is green. Over in the LBC (Check out equipment room), the Astrium/ESA teams are busy overseeing ATV. I see the reults on a special screeen here in Jupiter. In order to make it simple for the managers, the main screen consists of a series of flags which turn orange / green /  red depending on the activity… at the moment all the right ones are green.

The atmosphere is very relaxed in Jupiter Control room. It is extra fun for me, since many of the people sitting in front of me are my old colleagues.

It is a bit like musical chairs (except that no one removes any chairs!) i.e. same faces, different positions. Mr Carlier, who replaced me as RLOC (‘Responsable Localisation’) in 1996 is here, now as adjoint SDO (‘Sous-directeur chargé des opérations’). Raymond, who worked with the remote control system in 1996, later went off to flight safety and is now sitting in the telecom chair. Patrick sat next to me (or vice versa) in 1996, then he went off to Gabon, before coming back a few years later (occupying the same chair, RTM), just like Jose. Valentine, a pillar of the CTDL (centre de traitement des données de localisation – flight dynamics), is still a pillar but now with synchro in Jupiter… and so on and so forth.

There are many more I could mention but I should perhaps try to concentrate on the countdown… enough to note that ATV is in good hands. In one or two hours Jupiter will really fill up and the tension will rise…..
– Charlotte