Yesterday, a ‘team of teams’ working at ESA’s control centre conducted a final rehearsal for tomorrow’s launch of Sentinel-3A.
The rehearsal was the culmination of almost six months’ intensive training for 50 engineers and scientists working on the Sentinel-3A satellite launch, set for 16 February at 17:57 GMT (18:57 CET).
Sentinel-3A carries a suite of sophisticated instruments that will measure Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere, providing essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting as part of Europe’s revolutionary Copernicus programme.
The day-long session saw the team sitting ‘on console’ in the Main Control Room at ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, being led through the countdown, the liftoff and the initial hours of flight until the satellite’s solar panel opened after about two hours.
“We’ve practised all phases of the flight during more than 25 ‘sim’ sessions, including when everything goes according to plan, and when anomalies or system failures occur,” says satellite operations manager José Morales.
“Every team member knows his or her job, and more importantly, we know how to react as a team to unexpected contingencies.
“Sentinel-3A will present us with a classic set of challenges to get it through the launch and early orbits. Everything has to happen just right, in the right sequence and at the right time.”
SOURCE ESA, Read more..
