Last message

Dear all,
Today all members of the CryoSat-2 team will fly back to their respective bases: Friedrichshafen for ASTRIUM and Noordwijk for ESA.
The custom clearance has been obtained for our campaign equipment as well to return home.
So it is time now to say good bye.
To celebrate this moment I have a last surprise for all of you: A shot of these freshly opened Подснeжник, Snowdrops (Perce-neige). These photos were made yesterday 12/4 in the park of the Cosmonaut Hotel.

The break out of these first flowers in Baikonur beautifully materialises the seasonal transition and the renewal of the nature. So After the formal end of the CS-2 campaign, life continues and each of us will now be assigned to new activities or new projects. A new life will start.

After 102 messages published more or less in real time, it is time now to close this blog. For those interested to re-visit such or such topic of the campaign, all what has been posted so far will remain on line. May be after proof reading and few corrections, a DVD may be considered to capture these information and pictures but this has still to be confirmed.

In the mean time, I want to thank those who were supporting us during this 3 month launch campaign and those who have showed regular interest to our activities sending feed back from time to time. This has been much appreciated.

On my side, it is has been extremely interesting experience and a pleasure to share these moments with you.

I take this opportunity given by this last message to wish you all the best!

Poka

Kirill B.

PS:
I forgot to tell you that after 4 days in space our spacecraft is working extremely well. After SIRAL switch on, the first echoes of the radar altimeter have been received. You can then easily imagine the excitement at ESOC the last days. DORIS, the unit providing precise positioning of the spacecraft was performing also very well. To date, the LEOP* has now been successfully completed. The Commissioning phase that will prepare the calibration of the instrument and and hand over of the Spacecraft to the user community has started and will last till next June.
Let's wish that the success we have known so far will continue and soon scientists, after processing the CS-2 data, will be able to better understand the environmental changes we are facing today on planet Earth.

*LEOP Launch and Early Orbit Phase