LISA Pathfinder - Vega (VV06) - Kourou ZLV - 03.12.2015

[Salo]

http://www.arianespace.com/news-mission-update/2015/1366.asp

LISA Pathfinder is "topped off" for its Arianespace Vega launch to test the General Theory of Relativity
 
  November 10, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The LISA Pathfinder scientific space probe to be launched by Arianespace's next Vega flight has received its propellant load for a mission to study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
LISA Pathfinder was "topped off" in the Spaceport's S5 payload preparation facility, taking it one step closer to a December 2 launch from French Guiana on Arianespace Flight VV06 – the light-lift Vega's sixth launch since entering service in 2012.
The European Space Agency space probe was built under the responsibility of prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space, and will be placed by Vega in an initial elliptical Earth orbit. The spacecraft's own propulsion module will be utilized to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
To evaluate the concept of low-frequency gravitational wave detection, LISA Pathfinder will put two test masses in a near-perfect gravitational free fall, controlling and measuring their motion with unprecedented accuracy.  The test masses will be suspended inside their own vacuum containers, with LISA Pathfinder designed as the quietest spacecraft ever launched – allowing for extremely small distance measurements with the masses to be performed by an onboard interferometer.
Vega is the smallest member of Arianespace's launcher family, tailored to accommodate scientific, institutional, governmental and commercial satellites. It operates along with the medium-lift Soyuz and heavy-lift Ariane 5 at the Spaceport. 
The development of Vega was carried out in a multinationally-financed European Space Agency program, with the launcher's design authority and prime contractor role performed by Italy's ELV company – a joint venture of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.


LISA Pathfinder is filled with its propellant load in preparation for the spacecraft's launch on Arianespace Flight VV06.

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[che wi]

ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  1h ago

L-14 days: LPF has been integrated to the VEGA Payload Adaptor, and the fairing has now been closed.

[Salo]

http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/56854-launch-campaign-journal-4-hidden-from-view/

18 November 2015 11:24
 With only fourteen days to go until the launch of LISA Pathfinder on 2 December, preparations continue according to plan, and this week has seen another two major milestones passed: fitting the launch vehicle adapter to the spacecraft, and enclosing the spacecraft in the fairing.
 
    Since arriving at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 8 October, the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft has been tested and prepared to ensure that it is ready to be launched.


LISA Pathfinder being prepared for fuelling.
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. Baudon

    Following the completion last week of fueling of the propellant tanks, this week saw the launch composite module (LCM) - the combined spacecraft and propulsion modules - undergoing the final preparations for the launch. This started with the LCM being removed from its integration jig, and being fitted to the Payload Adaptor of the Vega rocket. The next time the LCM separates from this adaptor LISA Pathfinder will be about 200km above the Earth's surface, having just completed its first orbit of the Earth.


LISA Pathfinder being integrated to the Vega launcher's Payload Adaptor.
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - G. Barbaste

    When the LCM was secured on the payload adaptor, all the non-flight items - the so called Red Tag Items - that were still on the satellite had to be removed. These are coloured red so that they are easier to spot on the spacecraft, reducing the chance that we miss one! Examples of Red Tag Items are: the covers that protect the thruster nozzles, and the safety pins that prevent unwanted firing of the pyrotechnic release mechanisms.

Examples of red tag items covering the micro-newton thrusters' nozzles.
Credit: ESA

    With the launch composite in its flight configuration, the next step was to enclose it in the rocket's payload shroud, also known as the fairing. The fairing protects the satellite as it accelerates up through the atmosphere of the Earth. If you have seen the Hollywood movie, The Martian, you'll know that the fairing is crucial in protecting the inside of the payload bay, and ensuring the rocket reaches its intended orbit... especially travelling at high velocity through Earth's thick atmosphere.
    However, when LISA Pathfinder has passed through the atmosphere, the fairing becomes a hindrance, as it means carrying more mass than necessary into orbit. So, only 3 minutes 54 seconds after launch, the two 'clam shells' of the fairing separate and are jettisoned from the launcher. The two halves then burn up as they hurtle through the atmosphere on their final journey back towards Earth.

The two halves of the LISA Pathfinder fairing. 
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. baudon

    Back to this week: with LISA Pathfinder now enclosed in the fairing and hidden from our view, the team had one final activity before we wave our baby off on its journey to the launch pad: the signing of the fairing sticker. The whole team present at the launch site had the opportunity to sign our names on the side of the fairing, wishing LISA Pathfinder Godspeed on her voyage to space.

    Paul McNamara
    17 November 2015
    Kourou, French Guiana

[Salo]

ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  18 нояб.  
ESA_LPF ретвитнул(а) ESA
The next time she sees the light will be on orbit!
ESA_LPF добавил(а),
   
   
 
  ESA  @esa  
//#[B]LISAPathfinder[/B] being encapsulated for 2 Dec launch http://esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/11/Encapsulation_begins3... Update: http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/56854-launch-campaign-journal-hidden-from-view/...

ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  18 нояб.  
How LPF was moved from the CSG S5 cleanroom onto its transporter  
   
   
 
 
  ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  18 нояб.  
And we're off to the launch pad.....
 
[/li][/LIST]ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  18 нояб.  
LPF is now at the launch pad. Next step is to lift it to the upper level in preparation for integration to the rocket tomorrow

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ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  24 ч.24 часа назад  
And we're there....LPF is now on the upper level of the launch platform. Later today we will have a complete rocket.  
   
 
 
  ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  18 ч.18 часов назад  
With the integration of the "egg" onto the top of the rocket, VV06 - LPF's ride to space - is now complete.
 

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/11/20/vega-booster-crowned-with-gravitational-probe-pathfinder/

Vega booster crowned with gravitational probe pathfinder       
Posted on November 20, 2015 by Stephen Clark

LISA Pathfinder and its orbit-raising propulsion module were enclosed inside the Vega rocket's payload fairing Nov. 16. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut, 2015
 
After criss-crossing Europe for a decade, the LISA Pathfinder satellite testbed has reached its last stop before launch in early December on a mission to demonstrate the delicate technologies required to detect elusive low-frequency gravitational waves rippling through the cosmos.
Ground crews transferred the spacecraft — already enclosed inside the Vega rocket's nose cone — from a preparation facility at Europe's spaceport in French Guiana to the Vega's launch pad Wednesday. A crane lifted the package on top of the four-stage rocket Thursday, topping off the 98-foot-tall (30-meter) booster.

Спойлер

The European Space Agency mission is set for launch Dec. 2 at 0415 GMT (11:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 1) on the sixth flight of the Italian-led Vega rocket. The mission has a one-second launch window, or else wait until another day.
Made by a contractor team led by Airbus Defense and Space's UK division, the hexagonal space probe is heading for a looping halo-like orbit around the L1 Lagrange point nearly a million miles, or 1.5 million kilometers, from Earth toward the sun. The tug of gravity from Earth and the sun roughly balance at the L1 point, making it a popular home for solar research missions.
But LISA Pathfinder will not look at the sun.
Mission planners chose L1 for LISA Pathfinder's operating post because it offers a gravity-neutral location to avoid spoiling the probe's finely-tuned internal sensors, which must maintain extremely precise movements to cancel out any extraneous gravitational field.

Technicians hoist the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft inside its payload fairing atop the Vega rocket's AVUM fourth stage early Thursday. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon
 
The spacecraft will release two gold-platinum alloy cubes — each 1.8 inches (46 millimeters) on a side — from launch locks inside internal chambers once it is on track for the L1 Lagrange point. Free-floating 15 inches (38 centimeters) apart inside separate vacuum enclosures, the motion of the test cubes will be tracked to one thousandth of one millionth of a millimeter using a laser ranging system measuring the distance between them.
Cold gas micro-thrusters mounted outside the probe, coupled with specialized control software, will carefully regulate the movement of the spacecraft to keep the gold-platinum test masses floating inside their housings. The goal of the spacecraft is to keep the test cubes floating in an electrostatic field free from outside influence, demonstrating the masses can remain in near-perfect free-fall.
NASA supplied a separate set of colloidal thrusters, which generate thrust by accelerating liquid fuel through an electric field, to take over control of LISA Pathfinder for part of its 180-day prime science mission. The U.S. space agency also developed separate software algorithms to be tested on the mission independently of the European control systems.
The crux of LISA Pathfinder's mission is testing out the thrusters, software, lasers and electronics required to fly a such a spacecraft perfectly undisturbed.

Artist's illustration of the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft after separation from its propulsion module. Credit: ESA
 
LISA Pathfinder is designed to essentially fly itself around the free-floating test masses embedded inside it, according to Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, ESA's project manager for the mission.
Such technologies are vital to a future satellite project to deploy a fully-fledged gravitational wave observatory. With up to three spacecraft stationed up to millions of miles apart, the multi-spacecraft observatory set for launch in the 2030s will be capable of picking up signals of gravitational waves by monitoring slight, but measurable, changes in the distances between the test masses inside the three spacecraft.
Astronomers say gravitational waves coming from immense objects in the distant universe, such as merging black holes and galactic nuclei, can yield new insights into the fundamental physics of the universe in ways impossible to study with traditional observations of light waves .
LISA Pathfinder is purely experimental. Its modest size — about 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) in diameter — is too small to detect the low-frequency gravitational waves themselves.
ESA authorized full development of LISA Pathfinder in 2004, with a launch then expected in 2008.
But hurdles stood in the way, forcing European designers to switch from a futuristic design of electric micro-thrusters to stabilize the spacecraft in orbit to less precise nitrogen cold gas thrusters. Engineers also struggled with the mechanism that will shield LISA Pathfinder's test masses from the vibrations of launch.
"It's been a long mission — longer than anticipated — and the reason is we are a technology mission," Marirrodriga said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. "In some cases, we thought we had technical solutions and we had to change. We had to change because that technical solution was not working, and when you change something in the middle of a space mission, then that affects everything the rest of the way."
Speaking Friday in an phone interview from the Vega launch base in French Guiana, Marirrodriga the launch campaign for LISA Pathfinder has had no such glitches.
Technicians from Arianespace and ELV, the Vega's commercial operator and Italian prime contractor, began stacking the rocket on its launch pad in late September.
First erected was the P80 first stage solid rocket motor, which generates more than 650,000 pounds of thrust. Crews added the Vega's Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 second and third stage motors, then hoisted a liquid-fueled fourth stage atop the rocket.
The addition of LISA Pathfinder inside its payload fairing Thursday completed assembly of the rocket.

This chart shows the journey of LISA Pathfinder from Earth to its orbit around the L1 Lagrange point. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
 
LISA Pathfinder's cruise to the L1 Lagrange point will take about 50 days.
The Vega booster will first loft the 4,210-pound (1,910-kilogram) spacecraft into an elliptical parking orbit after its Dec. 2 launch. Marirrodriga told Spaceflight Now the launch will deposit LISA Pathfinder in an initial orbit with high point of about 954 miles (1,536 kilometers) and a low point of 124 miles (200 kilometers).
LISA Pathfinder carries with it a liquid propulsion module based on Airbus' telecommunications satellite bus, and six engine firings will propel the probe out of its low-altitude orbit toward L1.
Assuming an on-time launch Dec. 2, a test burn of the engine is scheduled for Dec. 5, followed by the six orbit-raising maneuvers Dec. 6, Dec. 7, Dec. 8 and Dec. 11, Marirrodriga said.
"We can say then we're going to L1," Marirrodriga said.
The mission may require course-correction burns on the journey to L1 in December and January, then LISA Pathfinder will be captured into an expansive, arcing pathway around the libration point.
The mission's science module will jettison the expendable propulsion package Jan. 22, assuming a launch in early December.
"You can argue then that we are already on a trajectory around L1 because from that moment on, the only thrusters that (LISA) Pathfinder will have are the micro-newton thrusters — the cold gas thrusters — so you already have to be injected into an orbit around L1," Marirrodriga said.
The complex procedure to release LISA Pathfinder's gold-platinum test cubes is set for early February, with its six-month baseline mission beginning soon after.

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https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667661505052045312

ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF
Some beautiful photos of the integration of the "egg" on to the rocket. [Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2015]




 
 3:11 - 20 нояб. 2015 г.

[Salo]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/21/satellite-to-solve-einstein-last-theory

Will this European satellite confirm Einstein's last unproven idea?
 The Lisa Pathfinder will test equipment for an orbiting observatory that will peer into the universe's darkest corners

 
The Lisa Pathfinder will try to find gravitational waves outlined by Albert Einstein. Photograph: ESA
Robin McKie
Saturday 21 November 2015 23.00 GMT Last modified on Sunday 22 November 2015 00.26 GMT
 
It was perhaps the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century. And next week space scientists will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in fitting style – by launching a probe to help demonstrate the accuracy of the theory's last unproven prediction: the existence of gravitational waves.
At 4.15am on 2 December, the satellite, known as Lisa Pathfinder, is scheduled to be blasted into orbit from the European Space Agency's centre in Kourou, French Guiana. It will carry equipment that will be tested as components for a future orbiting gravitational wave observatory.

Спойлер

"The theory of general relativity is the scientific equivalent of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel," said Pedro Ferreira, professor of astrophysics at Oxford University. "Both are unique works of genius and each could only have been done by one individual. And it is quite stunning that the Lisa Pathfinder satellite – which is designed to help find gravitational waves whose existence is predicted by the theory – is going to be launched on the exact anniversary of the publication of Einstein's work."
Gravitational waves are thought to be hurled across space when stars start throwing their weight around, for example, when they collapse into black holes or when pairs of super-dense neutron stars start to spin closer and closer to each other. These processes put massive strains on the fabric of space-time, pushing and stretching it so that ripples of gravitational energy radiate across the universe. These are gravitational waves.
Observations by US astronomers Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse in the 1980s provided key supporting evidence of their existence. The pair showed that a neutron star, now known as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar, was part of a binary system whose orbit was decaying at a rate consistent with it pumping out gravitational waves. This work won Hulse and Taylor the 1993 Nobel prize in physics. Since then, physicists have tried to spot gravitational waves directly, using ground-based devices with a common design: two long arms, set at right angles to each other, extending from a central point.
When a gravitational wave strikes, it should temporarily shrink one arm and slightly extend the other. That change can then be measured – albeit with considerable difficulty, because any change induced in an arm's length by a gravitational wave will only be a few hundred billion-billionths of a metre.
So far, researchers have yet to detect such changes. Once they do, one of the final hurdles to a complete understanding of the makeup of our universe will have been achieved. However, they are now extending their efforts to space because, in orbit, it should be possible to fly detectors that are 5 million kilometres apart and which will be better able to spot the compressing and stretching of space-time.
"Over these huge distances, the effect of a gravitational wave is much greater and so it becomes much easier to detect one," said Paul McNamara, the mission's project scientist.
The Pathfinder probe will test equipment that will later be used to build a full-scale orbiting gravitational wave detector, a device that will be known as Lisa, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. However, astronomers will have to wait some time before it arrives because the European Space Agency does not plan to launch Lisa until 2034.
"It is a simply a matter of budgets. There are so many other great space projects competing for money," said McNamara. "Nevertheless, a space-based gravitational wave observatory will revolutionise astronomy. We are not merely building a detector. We will have a machine that will use gravitational waves to study the universe.
"It will be an observatory and it will use a completely new medium to peer into the universe's dark corners. Of course, a great many technological hurdles will have to be overcome. This is a very ambitious project. Nevertheless, we believe we can do it."
At the heart of Lisa Pathfinder are two 2kg cubes of gold and platinum. These will be allowed to float free inside the craft, while being shielded from all forms of radiation and particle bombardment. The task of Lisa Pathfinder will then be to determine if it is possible to use lasers to measure deviations in their movements inside the craft with an accuracy of a trillionth of a metre. "We have worked very hard on this and we are sure that we can do it," added McNamara.
"This is a great mission and the fact that it is going to be launched exactly 100 years after the publication about general relativity on 2 December, 1915, just makes the experience all the richer for us."

Albert Einstein believed ripples of gravitational energy cross the universe. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

THEORY THAT WAS YEARS IN THE MAKING

In his On the General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein took previous ideas about gravity – which had been seen as a force acting between objects – and replaced them with a description of it as being a geometric property of space and time.
Many predictions emanated from this idea: the existence of super-dense collapsed stars – now known as black holes – gravitational lensing, in which light from a distant source is distorted by a huge, intermediary object, gravitational waves and many others.
"All of these phenomena have now been observed – with one exception, and that is gravitational waves," said Pedro Ferreira, whose book The Perfect Theory, published last year, outlined the struggles that Einstein endured in working out his theory.
"It was like a piece of art, the effort of one man, who struggled for seven years just to get things right," said Ferreira. "He worked on his ideas and equations exhaustively and then presented his theory in a series of lectures in November 1915 culminating in a final presentation on the 24th. Then he published in an unbelievably short time on 2 December."
At the time the publication of Einstein's theory attracted little attention. Europe was then convulsed by war. However, the theory made global headlines shortly after the war, when the British astronomer Arthur Eddington studied star positions during a total solar eclipse and found their light was being bent by the Sun in a manner consistent with Einstein's theory.
However, it took the development of radio astronomy to fully underline the importance of general relativity. "Astronomers began to detect ultra-energetic, incredibly dense objects that could only be understood in terms of their gravitational fields," said Ferreira. "Gravity had to be really, really important, and the only theory that makes it possible for us to understand gravity is general relativity."

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[Salo]

http://www.arianespace.com/news-press-release/2015/11-25-2015-VV06-launch-announcement.asp
 

Next Arianespace Flight VV06: Vega to orbit LISA Pathfinder for the European Space Agency (ESA)

Kourou, November 25, 2015
For the 11th launch of 2015 from the Guiana Space Center, the Vega light launcher on its overall sixth mission, this time on behalf of ESA, will orbit the LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator, into an elliptical low earth orbit for a mission to the L1 Lagrange point.
With this seventh launch of the year overall for European Governments, this time focusing on space research and science, Arianespace, once again, reflects the company's assigned mission of ensuring independent access to space for Europe.
The launch will be carried out from the Vega launch complex (SLV) in Kourou, French Guiana.

Targeted orbit:  Elliptic low earth orbit for a mission to the L1 Lagrange point (at 1.5 million km from Earth)
 Perigee: 207 km
 Apogee: 1,540 km
 Inclination: 5.96 degrees.
Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at exactly:
 • 01:15:00 a.m. (local time in French Guiana),
 • 11:15:00 p.m. (Washington, DC), on December 1st
 • 04:15:00 a.m. (UTC),
 • 05:15:00 a.m. (Paris).

The mission, from liftoff to release of the satellite, will last 1 hour, 45 minutes and 33 seconds.
The launcher will carry a total payload of 1,986 kg, including 1,906 kg for the LISA Pathfinder satellite, which will be injected into its targeted orbit.
The Launch Readiness Review (LRR) will take place on Monday, November 30, 2015 in Kourou, to authorize the start of operations for the final countdown.

LISA Pathfinder
 Developed by ESA, the LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator will pave the way for future spaceborne gravitational-wave observatories that will ultimately observe and precisely measure gravitational waves, "ripples in the fabric of space-time" predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
LISA Pathfinder is the first step toward observing Einstein's gravitational waves from space. Its mission objective is to test the innovative technologies needed to directly detect these distortions.
 
To watch a live, high-speed transmission of the launch, go to www.arianespace.com on December 2, 2015 (including local commentary in French or English), starting 20 minutes before liftoff. You can also follow the launch live on your iPhone or iPad (the Arianespace.tv app is free).
For further information, download the launch press kit here: www.arianespace.com/news-launch-kits/launch-kit.asp

About Arianespace
 Arianespace is the world's leading satellite launch company. Founded in 1980, Arianespace deploys a family of three launchers, Ariane, Soyuz and Vega, to meet the needs of both commercial and government customers, and has performed 270 launches to date. Backed by its 20 shareholders and the European Space Agency, Arianespace is the only company in the world capable of launching all types of payloads into all orbits, from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. As of November 25, 2015, Arianespace had carried out 227 Ariane launches, 38 Soyuz launches (12 at the Guiana Space Center and 26 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, via Starsem) and five Vega launches. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a facility at the Guiana Space Center, plus local offices in Washington D.C., Tokyo and Singapore.

[Salo]

http://www.arianespace.com/images/launch-kits/launch-kit-pdf-eng/VV06-launchkit-GB.pdf

[Salo]

[Salo]

http://www.arianespace.com/news-mission-update/2015/1367.asp

Launcher assembled: Vega receives the LISA Pathfinder payload for its December 2 flight
 
November 25, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
Another Vega launcher has completed its assembly process, marking a major milestone as preparations continue for Arianespace's 11th mission of the year from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
This activity concluded with the integration of Vega's "upper composite," which consists of the LISA Pathfinder scientific space probe passenger and its protective payload fairing. Installation took place at the Spaceport's SLV launch site, inside the facility's protective mobile gantry.
The lightweight Vega is one of three launchers operated by Arianespace from French Guiana, along with the medium-lift Soyuz and heavyweight Ariane 5. Its development was performed in a multinationally-financed European Space Agency program, with the vehicle's design authority and prime contractor role performed by Italy's ELV company – a joint venture of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.
Vega entered service in February 2012, and its five missions to date – all successful – have orbited a variety of payloads, ranging from Earth imaging satellites and climate change observation platforms to technology demonstrators and an experimental spaceplane.
LISA Pathfinder was developed in a European Space Agency (ESA) program and built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space. Produced to study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, it will be placed in an initial elliptical Earth orbit on the December 2 Vega mission – which is designated Flight VV06 in Arianespace's numbering system.
 The spacecraft's own propulsion module will then be utilized to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. LISA Pathfinder's total liftoff mass is estimated at 1,906 kg.

Launch timing for Vega Flight VV06
UTC 04:15:00 on December 2, 2015
 

Vega's completion is highlighted in this photo series, beginning with the "upper composite's" move to the Spaceport's SLV launch site on a special transporter.



This component subsequently was hoisted to the appropriate level of the launch site's mobile gantry, positioned over Vega and then integrated with the light-lift vehicle.

[Salo]

[Сергио]

для меня Pathfinder это вот:

[Salo]

Лизу Вы не заметили?

[Salo]

http://www.arianespace.com/news-mission-update/2015/1368.asp

Vega is cleared for its December 2 liftoff with LISA Pathfinder to study the ripples in space-time
 
  November 30, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06

Following today's launch readiness review at the Spaceport in French Guiana, Arianespace's lightweight Vega has been given the go-ahead for its mission Wednesday to orbit the European Space Agency's pioneering LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator.
This regular step in Arianespace's pre-launch preparations confirmed that the Vega launcher and its LISA Pathfinder payload are ready for flight, along with the Spaceport's infrastructure, and the downrange tracking station network.
As Arianespace's 11th total mission so far this year across its complete family of Vega, Ariane 5 and Soyuz vehicles, Wednesday's early-morning launch – designated Vega Flight VV06 in the company's numbering system – will lift off at exactly 1:15 a.m. local time in French Guiana.
Following liftoff fr om the Spaceport's SLV complex, the powered phase of Vega's first three stages will last six and a half minutes, before separation of the upper composite with the AVUM (Attitude & Vernier Upper Module) stage, payload adapter and LISA Pathfinder.
Approximately one minute later, the AVUM will ignite for its first burn – lasting almost nine minutes – which is to be followed by a ballistic phase of about 85 minutes. Finally, the AVUM will perform a second powered phase of some one and a half minutes, in advance of LISA Pathfinder's deployment into an elliptical low-Earth parking orbit to complete the one-hour, 45-minute mission.
LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator developed in a European Space Agency program and built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space. After being orbited by Vega, this space probe will utilize its own propulsion module to reach an operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), from wh ere it will study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
Flight VV06 will be Vega's sixth overall mission since it entered service in 2012, and the lightweight vehicle's third launch this year.
 
Launch timing for Vega Flight VV06
UTC 04:15:00 on December 2, 2015

[instml]

Запуск отложен.

1 December 2015

During the final step of VV06 launch campaign, a technical issue on the Vega launch vehicle required additional analysis. The launch initially scheduled for December 2, 2015 is postponed.

ESA's LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is in stable and safe conditions and the launcher teams are currently working on this technical issue.

A review of the results will take place tomorrow, leading to a decision for a possible launch on December 3.

http://www.esa.int/For_Media/Press_Releases/VV06_launch_postponed

[dma2018]

Уже скоро...

At 04:04 GMT (05:04 CET) on Thursday, 3 December, ESA's LISA Pathfinder is set to lift off on a 30 m-tall Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, for a 105-minute ride into orbit.

The liftoff will be streamed live via two separate programmes on Wednesday: launch webcast live from Kourou, 03:44 GMT (04:44 CET) start; and a media briefing live from ESOC, 05:30 GMT (06:30 CET) start.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/LISA_Pathfinder_launch_timeline

[bavv]

ESA Operations ‏@esaoperations 10 мин.
 ESOC confirms ground segment, systems & team remain GREEN for launch #VV06 #LISAPathfinder 04:04GMT - 05:04 CET