Testing has started: AFT-8 completed

The spacecraft has been power on as showed by the orange light below.

The red light (on the left) is only activated to warn personnel when radio frequencies are emitted from the SIRAL-2 instrument.


The first test called AFT-8 (8th Abbreviated Functional test) has now been completed.
The purpose of this test is to show that the Spacecraft is in "good health" from a functional point of view after its transport from Munich to baikonur.
It is a system level test where all the units (+redundancies) and their respective modes of functioning are checked.

Picture below shows Astrium and ESA experts monitoring form the Check out room the AFT-8 test.

Weather in Baikonur

This page gives an idea of the weather conditions in Baikonur during the launch campaign:
Temperature below as read at ca 8:00 am on the thermometer outside at the entrance of Hotel Sputnik.
Temperatures increase a lot in the day particularly under sunny conditions.
January 2010
W 13: -10C, slight wind
T 14: -12C, no wind
F 15: -12C, no wind, sunny
S 16: -14C, no wind
S 17: -10C, very light snow, then very sunny
M 18: -10C, no wind
T 19: -18C, no wind
W 20: -19C, strong north/east wind, very sunny
T 21: -19C, no wind, overcast/partly sunny
F 22: -10C, no wind, extremely sunny
S 23: -12C, no wind, overcast
S 24: -9C, no wind, Snow fall in the morning clearing up in the day
M25: -11C, no wind overcast, then clear
Frost in the trees.

T26: -9C, strong gushes of wind, cloudy the whole day
W27: -8C, strong Northern wind, overcast, buran-like weather in the afternoon
Buran= snow storm in Russian language
T28: -10C, no wind, foggy cleared up in the day
F29: -6C, very slight wind, clear
S30: -10C, slight breeze, very clear and sunny weather :-), full moon
S31: -10C, no wind, sunny
February 2010
M1: -13C, no wind, very sunny
T2: -13C, breeze, very sunny
W3: -17C, slight breeze, very sunny
T4: -20C, no wind, very sunny :-)
F5: -22C, windy, sunny
S6: -14C, breeze, sunny after noon
S7: -20C, breeze, very sunny
M8: -22C, no wind, very sunny
T9: -22C, no wind, very sunny
W10: -22C, no wind, very sunny
T11: -22C, no wind, very sunny
F12: -26C, light breeze, very sunny
Proton rocket launch (Intelsat 16) at 6:39 am sharp, visible from the Hotel Sputnik yard looking in the Northern direction... in the starry night, the rocket looked like a huge comet. It was possible to see the booster separation. Distance from launch pas was about 50 kms.
S13: -25C, very light northern breeze, very sunny

S14: -19C, no wind, very sunny, beautiful light
M15: -16C, slight breeze, sunny becomes hazy
T16: -14C, slight breeze, sunny becomes hazy
W17: -6C, breeze, overcast and hazy the whole day
T18: -4C, North/Western breeze, overcast in the early morning but cleared up over the day
F19: -11C, no wind, very sunny
Beautiful frost is the trees.

S20: -6C, no wind, overcast
S21: -11C, No wind, very sunny (superb Sunday particularly mild in the afternoon)
M22: -6C, no wind, overcast

T23: 0C, slight east-southern breeze, heavily clouded (similar to usual Dutch weather)
Unespectedly it was Raining in the evening! Дождь смывает снег (Russian saying meaning: rain washes off snow. Will spring break through suddenly? Anyway, we experience very rapid weather changes in this semi desertic area.
W24: 0C, wind, slight rain at the hotel departure and snow at the MIK
T25: -1C, slight wind, cloudy, showers and hail late after noon.
A picture shot a 18:57 from hotel (i.e. ca 1 hour before the canceled launch time), showing showers and hail over the city. Could it be storm over the cosmodrome?, Certainly not ideal weather conditions for a launch.

F26: -3C, no wind, light snow during the morning
S27: -3C, northern/east breeze, sunny
S28: -8C, no wind, very sunny (+4c in the afternoon)
Full moon seen for the Sushi Haus, 7 Microraion, Baikonur.

March 2010
M1: -8C, slight eastern breeze, sunny
T2: -7C, slight breeze, sunny (positive T in the afternoon)
W3: -7C, wind, very sunny
T4: -8C, strong easterly wind, very sunny
The red aspect of the steppe is amplified by the window light filtering of the Gaz-L mini bus. The Gaz-L is really a gazelle, it has no suspensions, it just jumps form potholes to potholes. Don't plan any activity during the transport :-)

F5: -7C, no wind, sunny then hazy
S6: -3C, no wind, partly clouded
S7: +3C, no wind, rainy, clearing up at end of day
M8: 0C, no wind, overcast, few drops of rain, clearing up at the end of the day
Baikonur sky at 19:30 seen for the Sputnik hotel in western direction

T9:-3C, slight North Western breeze, partly clouded, hazy.
Few birds (craw type) gather since a couple of days in the city; for getting food and preparing for nesting?

W10: -3C, slight breeze, overcast
T11, -5C, snow, slight Northern breeze, clouded.
Nice sunny episode at 13:00 when leaving MIK with 5 cm of snow

F12: -5C breeze, partly cloudy clearing up in the day
Morning sky and stalagmites on the sputnik roof edge at 8:00 am

S13: -2C, windy, sunny but hazy.
The Pinkerton Dogs welcome us when we arrive at MIK today with Gerhard (arrived from Astrium yesterday) for the purging. The name come for the American security team (Pinkerton) of the previous campaign on site 31 which fed the dog. .. like pigs:-). That is why Russians call them "Pinkerton" now...

S14: +2C, no wind, partly clouded
M15: -1C, very slight breeze, clouded and foggy in the morning
T16: +1c, no wind, cloudy (+11c in the afternoon, few people seated in beer gardens)

W17: +2c, windy, cloudy
T18: -4C, slight breeze, very sunny
F19: 0C, slight breeze, cloudy and rain, snow later in the day
S20: -5C, no wind, Sunny
Proton-1 Breeze M launch, Payload Echostar14; lift off at 21:27 Moscow time +3 hours Baikonur time). The rocket could be eared from the hotel (walls were amplifying the low frequencies)...
S21: 0C, slight southern west breeze, cloudy (spring)
M22:+1C, no wind, Sunny (Nauryz)
T23: +1C, no wind sunny
W24: +6C, no wind, clouded
T25: 0C, southern breeze, sunny (+18C in the at 18:00 in the city)
F26: +6C, no wind, very sunny (strong wind at the end of the day)

S27: -5C, northern wind, partly clouded
S28: -1C, Northern wind, very sunny
Blossoms start to grow, on Korolev Avenue

M29: -2C, wind, very clear and sunny! dusk seen from Hotel Sputnik entrance

T 30: -1C, moderate easterly wind, very sunny (full moon)
W31: +2C, moderate easterly wind, partly clouded (seen few Souliks/Susliks, Суслики, on the cosmodrome, they seem to have terminated their annual hibernation)
April 2010
T1: +2C, moderate wind, sunny (seen the first Swallows flying in town + small Bats flying in daylight...)
Moon seen from Hotel Sputnik in 8:30am

F2: +3C, Slight northern breeze, sunny (TM-18 Soyuz launch)
S3: +6C, slight east wind, lightly cloudy and hazy
S4: +10C, slight breeze, sunny, (Easter)
M5: +10C, no wind, Overcast in the morning slightly stormy (view from Hotel sputnik (9:00am)

T6: +8C, strong southern west wind, sunny with few high altitude clouds
W7: +7C, slight breeze, partly cloudy and hazy
T8: +8C, slight breeze, sunny/hazy (see also launch day)
F9:+7, windy, hazy/cloudy
S10: +8C, very windy, cloudy and slightly rainy
S11: +2C, breeze, cloudy/rainy
M12: +6C, slight breeze, cloudy (Gagarin's day)
(View in late afternoon on the Syr Darya river in the northern direction from the platform of the Cosmonaut Path at Cosmonaut Hotel)

T13: +6C, slight eastern breeze, sunny (Team returns to base)

Present weather conditions and weather forecast in Baikonur.

Cryosat-2 Fairing

We have got the chance today to see some elements of the CryoSat-2 Fairing. This is the upper tip on the Dniepr rocket where the spacecraft (SC) will be encapsulated.

The complete Crosat-2 fairing on the Dniepr launcher is made of the following elements (from bottom to up):
-Launch Vehicle (LV) adapter (circular shape)
-SC adapter (squared shape)
-Platform A (lower part of the black cylinder)
-Platform B (upper part of the black cylinder)
-Gas Dynamic Shield (white metallic cover)
-PayLoad Fairing (PLF) which is not yet delivered.

The Russians have extracted the LV and SC adapters from the Platform A and fixed them together on the separate jig. A dummy SC (not seen today) will be installed on the jig. The dummy + adapters will be reintegrated into platform A. Platform B will be put on the top of Platform A. Then the fairing containing the dummy will be transported to the launch pad and connected (mechanically and electrically) to the launcher.
This dry run test is the repetition of what will be done later on with CryoSat-2.

View of platforms A and B


Extraction of the LV and SC adapters (Movie)


Close out view on the LV and SC adapters:
The SC is fixed on the adapter (square part) by 4 bolts.
The LV adapter and the SC adapter are fixed together with 4 pyrotechnic bolts.
In orbit, when the pyro bolts will be activated, the LV adapter will separate from Spacecraft SC but the SC adapter will remain onto the SC during the complete duration of the mission.


Positioning of the LV and SC adapter on the jig.
In the background a Soyuz (?) wrapped fairing can be seen.


View inside Platform B toward the Gas Dynamic Shield
This is the element that the Spacecraft will see once fully encapsulated.

Welcome to Hotel Sputnik

Yesterday evening 19/01/2010 most of our support colleagues for ESA and ASTRIUM has join Baikonur from Noordwijk (NL) and Friedrichshafen (D). The team has now almost reached its final quorum to complete final testing activities.

To celebrate the event, we had "mini social" at the hotel Sputnik where a glass of white (Meersburg, Mueller Thurgau) and red (Chateau la Haye, St Estephe) wines were offered to all.
Diner was followed by a briefing providing practical details for the "new comers"' and a working meeting to consolidate planning.



This introduction gives a natural opportunity for a quick tour of the hotel which accommodates the team for the CryoSat-2 campaign.

General view of the hotel (photo taken last Sunday, sun -10C almost no wind)


The architectural design of the hotel is likely inspired from the shape of the Sputnik: a central "heart"with 4 radial "wings" reminding the 4 antenna of the 1st ever built spacecraft.


Reception


Room


A nice view on the Sputnik memorial from room A18 (mine :-)


Bathroom


Sporting room


Swimmiming pool is certialnly nice but water temperature is 24C only


Gaming room


Dining room


Breakfast buffet as displayed this morning


Meeting room
(to be published later)

Bar
(to be published later)

Campaign activities - note #1

ESA and ASTRIUM core teams are now well set up in the MIK. Our offices are on 2nd floor (Russians consider ground floor as 1st floor)
Additional offices for support staff (ESA, ASTRIM, Thales Alenia Space, CNES) are available on the 3rd floor.

Clean room (3 rooms in fact: Spacecraft room, Check out room and support room) where integration and test activities take place is on the 1st floor.

Picture of the ESA core teaml office


Official flag of the campaign on display in the corridor


Check out room and support room (into the cleanroom)


The team leaves Hotel Sputnik at 8:00 am with the bus and starts with a Daily debriefing at 9:00 at the MIK. Bus returns to the hotel at 18:00 unless longer days are needed to complete activities.

Preliminary Remark: Within the frame of this blog, it is only intended to report info of general (and not technical) interest for a broad range of readers. A kind of Cryosat-2 for dummies... Therefore, these notes are certainly not exhaustive but just give a flavor of the scope of things the launch campaign team is busy with.

As it was said in a previous message, (See unpacking), the Solar Array (SA) had to be inspected separately after the protection panels have been removed. SAs are obviously fragile items due to the glass covering the solar cells.
As shown on the short movie below, the Spacecraft was rotated in order to position SAs in specific position where a visual inspection can easily be performed. This rotation gives a good opportunity to look the spacecraft as it will almost look like during flight. After the inspection SA protection covers will be put in place again to prevent any risk of damage during the following activities.



A nice picture of the Spacecraft (SC) in front of the Electrical Ground Segment Equipment (EGSE)
These racks are used for testing and monitoring the SC.


Other activities week worthwhile to mention this week:
-Battery charging
-Thermal protection of the top of the "dog house" permanently installed
-Preparing for a Spacecraft functional test (to make sure that all units work well)
-Checking some Electrical Ground Segment Equipment (EGSE)
-Preparing for On Board Software (OBSW) uploading
-Mounting the absorber wall for further testing of the radar altimeter (SIRAL-2)

In parallel, Rosscosmos has moved the Space Head Module (SHM) next to the spacecraft and started to prepare it for further integration. Cryosat-2 will be encapsulated later in the SHM.

Cryosat-2 ESA ASTRIUM launch campaign core team front of the Spacecraft on 16/01/2010

Postcard #1: A stroll in Baikonur city

Dear all,
Today is Sunday: this means for us the only free day of the week we have. So Let's keep it easy: I just send you a postcard. There will be a dedicated message on Baikonur city that will be posted later on.

So, to celebrate our "one day week end", it was decided to have a diner on Saturday evening in a Kazakh restaurant in a Yourte (the usual tent used by the nomads in the steppe). Excellent lamb and pork Шашлы́к or "Shashliks" (brochettes in French), nice atmosphere and eventually nobody got sick :-)

Credits: Philippe

This morning, Sunday, temperature was -15C with a light wind and few drops of snow, but the sky cleared up progressively in the day so we had a beautiful light to enjoy the Baikonur foot tour.

First we went down to the Syr Darya River, on the south edge of the town. The river still flows a bit despite the large frozen areas. This is due to the presence of hot-springs along the river at this place which pour into the river and melt the ice. We walked on the ice few hundred meters along the bank.


There is anyway a safe ice ring a bit further where skaters were obviously enjoying themselves.


Coming back to the City center we could not escape to pass through the habitation blocks so typical from the Soviet era where most of the population lives. They are in mean condition due to the evident lack of maintenance. The new constructions don't look better than the old ones ...


We went then to The Evrasia mall (the term is may be slightly exaggerated compared to regular US ones) and the Open Market. Both are lively places on Sunday where people are shopping clothes, hats, food, cosmetics, spices ... like in the West, but the brands and the fashion are quiet different.

We passed the Baikonur Railway station where stands an old steam locomotive decommissioned in 2005 (Diesel ones are used nowadays). This machine was used to pull the rockets within the cosmodrome. This is obviously one of the strong symbols of the golden age of the Space era with rockets, sputnik, heroes, etc which are on display everywhere in the city.


Finally we passed by the Cosmonaut Hotel. This hotel is used by cosmonauts before space missions. In the park around the hotel, there is the famous "Allei Kosmonotov" the Cosmonaut's path, where a tree is planted each time a cosmonaut flies a mission. We (Kirill and Bill) could not resist to make a picture front of the Gagarin tree, a veteran tree which is 48 years old now!


En passant, at the end of the Cosmonaut's path there is a superb view on the steppe and the Syr Darya river.


Last word on the people we have met today in the city. It is a mixed population from Russian and Kazakh origin. All the contacts and discussion we had were very friendly. They were may be surprised to see guys taking pictures in a city where tourism is almost not existing. As people don't speak English any (non academic) Russian knowledge is particularly useful.

To be followed...

From Russia with love!

Kirill Blogovitch

PS: Scene of children playing on the icy streets of Baikonur today