The CSG welcomes the ATV Jules Verne
After a crossing of almost 12 days on the cargo vessel MN Toucan, the Jules Verne automatic transfer vehicle (ATV) arrived to
For each Ariane launch campaign, CNES is responsible for ensuring the satisfactory operation of facilities made available for the launch operator and its customer satellites (the Payload Preparation Building (EPCU - Ensemble de Préparation des Charges Utiles), Measurements and Range safety), and then for coordinating implementation during the campaign, the preparation phases and the launch itself.
In order to house the Jules Verne ATV, the Guiana Space Centre had to upgrade its facilities and some of its equipment. CNES technical departments coordinated the overall development plan for this adaptation: namely the telemetry, tracking and flight safety systems, the S5 EPCU and the chemical analysis laboratory.
Necessary modifications for some equipment and facilities for housing the ATV
Changes to the EPCU and the chemical laboratory
For 5 months, the ATV will be installed in the S5 EPCU buildings run by CNES, to undergo specific verification and integration operations and then to be fuelled before launch.
Entered in service in April 2001, the EPCU S5 gathers three large clean rooms, connected by corridors where the satellites are dealt with as of their arrival until their transfer to the Final Assembly Building (BAF).
The ATV is prepared at the S5C. This first building of 700 m2 is used for non-hazardous preparation work. After 3.5 months, the ATV will be moved to the S5B, a 400 m2 building, for fuelling. The S5B is the first CSG facility to enable the fuelling of spacecraft with Russian propellants. To adapt the chemical laboratory run by CNES, to its specific characteristics, CNES acquired new analysis equipment (specific analysers and filters, equipment for sampling gas, gas standards, flowmeters) and developed new methods.
Evolution of the telemetry and flight safety system
From its lift-off to the end of the mission, the launcher is monitored and tracked with a set of optical, telemetry and radar tracking devices, implemented by CNES.
The necessary radio-electrical contact to this relation between the launcher and the ground allow:
- to receive by telemetry, permanently, information on the launcher functionning,
- to question by radar its responders to locate it on its trajectory,
- to stop its flight by destroying it by remote control if its behavior became a threat for the people and the goods flown over (flight safety).
Ariane 5 will have a long way to go after lifting-off from the Guiana Space Centre, before it reaches the International Space Station. Its mission of about 2h30 consists of five consecutive phases:
- a first phase of propulsion thanks to the Main cryogenic stage (EPC) and to the solid booster stages (EAP), then with the Storable propellant stage (EPS), over the North Atlantic, Kourou and the Azores;
- a first propulsion phase over the
- a first ballistic phase over
- a second propulsion phase over
- a second ballistic phase accounting for one complete orbit around the Earth;
- a third propulsion phase, to the North of Australia, so that the storable propellant stage (EPS - Etage à Propergols Stockables) is destroyed in the atmosphere.
To handle transmission of telemetry data during the propulsion phases, it was necessary to adapt the telemetry system and the network of downrange stations and this has now been done, in the
- the fixed CNES station at Galliot (Kourou), the station typically used by the Ariane network,
- the Ariane naval station (SNA - Station Navale Ariane), a mobile station located in the
- the fixed station (SMA), installed at Monte das
- the fixed station of
- a mobile station installed at Awarua in
- a fixed station (USN) at Dongara in
For 3 years, CNES has been the architect for this network of stations (identifying geographic zones, site surveying and signing contracts with sub-contractors). Until the end of the Ariane mission on the day of launch, the CSG teams will be responsible for ensuring that the telemetry system operates satisfactorily (installation, verification, data transmission).
Key figures
- campaign duration : 6 months
- personnel: approximately 150 missionaries
- transported material from
- total mass ATV on takeoff: 19.400 kilogrammes
