On Monday, the activities started early morning around 7:00 to transfer the satellite from S1A (preparation facility) to the S3B (fueling and encapsulation facility). The first step was the hoisting of the satellite from its tilting dolly onto the CCU3 pallet.

The CCU3 is a transport container made available as part of the launch base facilities to transfer satellites between the different preparation buildings. It is designed to protect the satellite against shock and vibrations and provide a suitable environment in terms of cleanliness, temperature, relative humidity and over-pressure.

The pallet is the base of this container that can be detached and moved around smoothly thanks to an air cushion system. It was brought this way in the cleanroom close to the satellite.

Once the satellite was mated on the CCU3 pallet, it could slide back into the airlock to re-integrate it housing.

As you can measure, the CCU3 is slightly oversized for Sentinel-2C and could have also transferred the whole team!

After all cleanliness, environment and purge set-up checks were successfully performed, the door of the CCU3 was closed until departure to S3B. This trip started at night around 19:00, to avoid the hottest part of the day.

The CCU3 was docked to the S3B airlock around 21:30. The preparation activities before the opening took up to midnight, after what the CCU3 door could be slowly opened and the pallet carrying the satellite moved to the HR (fueling hall) cleanroom. There, the purge set-up could be re-established before declaring the end of the activities around 4:00 AM.

A very long day for all the teams involved!

On Tuesday, the satellite was transferred to its vertical stand and the CCU3 pallet could move out of the cleanroom. After connection to the COTE2, the satellite was successfully switched ON and its status checked ready for fueling.

Over the last 3 days, the set-up and validation of the Fueling Ground Support Equipment was completed. The fueling team got trained to the SCAPE suits (Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble) that will be their safety outfits during the hazardous activities and look like this…

On Wednesday evening, the last actions were closed and authorization to start fueling was given. Since 15 August is bank holiday in France and French Guiana, the fueling will start on Friday 16 August.

In the meantime, the launcher preparation has also progressed according to schedule with the fueling of the 4th stage that started today.

As we are getting closer, the launch of Sentinel-2C has been officially announced by Arianespace (follow the link “S2C launch announced”).