Preparing for the "Dress Rehearsal"

The Dress Rehearsal terminology comes from the theater and indicates that all "players"of the launch will repeat the countdown as if it was the real day of the launch.

A step by step procedure of the Countdown has been written for CryoSat-2. The dress rehearsal is covered by a dedicated section of this procedure and it will take place on Friday 18 February between MIK, ESOC and the Launch Command Center (LCC) under Russian control.

The key players/places in the rehearsal are:

1. Spacecraft Responsible at MIK site 31 on Baikonur cosmodrome
2. Spacecraft Operation Team at MIK site 31 on Baikonur cosmodrome (support to 1)
   
3. Spacecraft Operation Manager (SOM) at ESOC Mission Control Room (MCR), Darmstadt Germany
   
4. Operation Director at ESOC MCR, Darmstadt Germany
5. Project Representative, ESOC MCR, Darmstadt Germany
   
6. LCC at site 111 on Baikonur cosmodrome

Communication means are set as follows:

• MIK <---> ESOC: voice loop or normal phone line/mobile in case of problems

• MIK <---> LCC : voice loop only (Russian Hardware)
  

The MIK, in the middle of this chain between ESOC and LCC, plays a key role on the overall flow of information not only during the rehearsal but also on the launch day.

The goal of this exercise is to repeat step by steps all the activities foreseen on the procedure from Launch minus 9 hours to Launch. As far as it is a dry run, the launch is declared aborted by LCC to MIK at the very last moment and the spacecraft is switched OFF but then,... the rehearsal continues on the ESOC side to simulate a successful launch and orbit injection.

To make it short, covered activities are:

• Check of Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE and NDIU)
• Switch of Power ON on the Spacecraft (SC)
  
• Switch SC to PRE-Launch and then to Launch configurations.
  

(Some of the last) crucial milestones of the count down:

• -15 minutes: start of the automatic sequence of the DNIEPR launcher
• -5 minutes : the last limit for NO-GO from the CryoSat-2 side
  
• -3 minutes : launch command presses the START button!