Sentinel-3B – Рокот/Бриз-КМ – Плесецк 133/3 – 25.04.2018, 17:57 UTC

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http://blogs.esa.int/eolaunches/2018/04/25/ready-for-liftoff/

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Honora

READY FOR LIFTOFF

With Sentinel-3B sitting and waiting patiently for liftoff and the launch dress rehearsal done, most of us had a day off yesterday – and now we are all rested and ready for tonight's launch!

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Ready for liftoff. (ESA)

Monday's dress rehearsal involved teams here in Plesetsk, the satellite operations team at ESA's European Operations Centre in Germany, and the ground station network. We practiced the countdown and simulated liftoff, checking all the procedures, network and voice links between us. We also rehearsed contingency procedures, which included switching off the satellite safely in the unlikely event of the launch being aborted.


Dress rehearsal. (ESA)


ESOC ready. (ESA)

The day resulted in everything being GREEN for launch.

So with everything in place for liftoff on 25 April at 17:57 GMT (19:57 CEST), we had some free time on Tuesday – which was a beautiful sunny day.

Some of use went to the Cosmodrome Museum. We took a couple of gifts: a model of Sentinel-3 and a framed photo of the launch campaign team in front of the rocket upper composite in the MIK. The gifts were appreciated and found their place in the display. We are officially part of the cosmodrome history!


Orphanage show. (ESA)


Playing with the orphanage children. (ESA)

Some of us also went to visit the Plesetsk orphanage and took gifts, thanks those who donated – thanks! The children put on a little singing and dancing routine, which was followed by play and games with their new toys. It was very emotional.

This short break did us all good and certainly helped to recharge our batteries.

Back at the cosmodrome, the Rockot launcher was being fuelled ... all done by 19:00 local time.

SO the satellite and launcher are ready, and we are rested and all ready for the big day ... READY!!!

The weather in Plesetsk is partly cloudy, 7 /+4 degrees

From the ESA Sentinel-3B launch campaign team in Plesetsk

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Sentinel 3B Satellite Attached to Rokot Launcher

Space Videos

Опубликовано: 24 апр. 2018 г.

The European Space Agency's Sentinel 3B environmental satellite has been encapsulated into it's payload fairing and then raised and stacked ontop of the Rokot launcher in Plesetsk, Russia.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight  назад

ARTICLE: Russian Rokot launch vehicle set for Sentinel-3b launch -

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/04/rokot-sentinel-3b-launch/ ...

- By William Graham

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/25/rockot-sentinel-3b-mission-status-center/

Live coverage: Europe's next environmental sentinel set for launch
April 25, 2018 | Stephen Clark

04/25/2018 16:30 Stephen Clark

A European environmental satellite designed to monitor Earth's oceans, lakes and vegetation is set for liftoff Wednesday aboard a modified Russian ballistic missile originally built to carry nuclear warheads.

The mission is scheduled for launch fr om the Plesetsk Cosmodrome around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow at 1757:38 GMT (1:57:38 p.m. EDT).

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A Rockot launcher, derived from Russia's UR-100N, or SS-19, ballistic missile, will send the Sentinel 3B remote sensing satellite into orbit with the help of a Breeze KM upper stage.

Sentinel 3B is the next in the European Commission's line of Copernicus environmental satellites, joining an identical observatory named Sentinel 3A which launched in February 2016.

Like its sister satellite, Sentinel 3B carries four instruments to track changes in the oceans, chart vegetation growth, detect pollution and wildfires, and measure sea level and the thickness of polar ice sheets.

The Copernicus Earth observation network is the world's most ambitious environmental satellite fleet, and Sentinel 3B is the seventh spacecraft to launch in the multibillion-euro program, which is funded by the European Commission, the European Union's executive body.

The Copernicus program is intended to provide data on Earth's oceans, land surfaces and atmosphere with unprecedented rapidity to scientists, policymakers, businesses, security officials and the public.

The data from the Sentinel satellites are distributed worldwide free of charge. European officials consider the Sentinel satellites part of a continuing operational service, developed in series rather than as one-off science missions.

"We're not just working with the marine environmental service, we're also working with the land, with the atmosphere and with the climate service," said Susanne Mecklenburg, Sentinel 3 mission manager at ESA. "There's a large variety of data that we can actually supply. The marine service is probably the most developed for the moment. It's already using data over the ocean, in particular the ocean color data, which tells us something about the marine ecosystem, about the health of the sea, and also can help predict things like harmful algal blooms."

ESA is in charge of developing and launching the Sentinel satellites on behalf of the EU. For Sentinel 3B, and its predecessor satellite Sentinel 3A, the European weather agency Eumetsat is responsible for mission operations and the distribution of marine data, while ESA will handle the dissemination of land environmental data.

With the launch of Sentinel 3B, which was built by Thales Alenia Space, the Copernicus program will have three satellite families fully deployed. The first two satellites in the Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 families, which are focused on disaster response and land surveys, were launched from 2014 through 2017. Another satellite, named Sentinel 5 Precursor, launched last October to measure global air quality.

Sentinel 3B will launch into a 503-mile-high (810-kilometer) polar orbit, wh ere it will enter a four-month tandem observing campaign in formation with Sentinel 3A to calibrate instruments. Then Sentinel 3B will fly to a greater distance from Sentinel 3A for the rest of its seven-year mission to ensure regular, repeating measurements of the same place on Earth every one-to-two days.

The 95-foot-tall (29-meter) Rockot launcher will boost the Sentinel 3B satellite into orbit Wednesday.

Technicians installed the Sentinel 3B spacecraft and its Breeze KM upper stage atop the Rockot booster inside its mobile launch tower at Plesetsk on Saturday, then completed a launch dress rehearsal Monday.

Russian ground crews also loaded toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide into the Rockot booster in readiness for Wednesday's launch opportunity.

A mobile gantry enshrouding the Rockot launch pad at Plesetsk will retract into launch position before liftoff Wednesday.

The Rockot's first stage engines will fire the vehicle out of its transport and launch container, a vertical tube developed to carry missiles on trucks as mobile weapons.

Heading north from Plesetsk, the booster's first stage will burn out and separate around two minutes after blastoff, and Rockot's second stage will take over to propel Sentinel 3B into space.

The launcher's 8.5-foot-diameter (2.6-meter) payload shroud will fall away around three minutes after liftoff.

The two-stage Rockot booster will push the Sentinel 3B satellite to a speed of more than 12,000 mph -- more than 5 kilometers per second -- before releasing the Breeze KM upper stage 5 minutes, 5 seconds, after liftoff.

Moments later, the Breeze KM engine will start up for a burn to place Sentinel 3B into a preliminary egg-shaped parking orbit. After flying over Greenland, Canada, the Western United States and the Pacific Ocean, the rocket will pass over Antarctica before firing the Breeze KM's engine again.

The roughly 30-second second burn will circularize the satellite's orbit at an altitude of about 503 miles.

Then the Breeze KM upper stage will release the Sentinel 3B satellite at around 1917 GMT (3:17 p.m. EDT).

A ground station in Kiruna, Sweden, is set to receive the first signals from the spacecraft around 1930 GMT (3:30 p.m. EDT) as it flies overhead, allowing engineers at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, to confirm the Sentinel 3B satellite is stable and has unfurled its power-generating solar array.

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04/25/2018 18:28 Stephen Clark

Earlier today, ground controllers powered up the Sentinel 3B spacecraft inside its shroud atop the Rockot booster at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in far northern Russia.

Teams at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, have completed initial data connectivity checks with the satellite.

Ground crews are expected to evacuate facilities near the Rockot's Complex 133 launch pad at Plesetsk around this time.

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04/25/2018 19:36 Stephen Clark

A poll of the Sentinel 3B team just completed at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, reported no problems with the satellite that could prevent an on-time liftoff at 1757 GMT (1:57 p.m. EDT).

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 3 мин. назад
 
LIVE Coverage: Russian Rokot launch with Sentinel-3b - ARTICL E:

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/04/rokot-sentinel-3b-launch/ ... 

WEBCAST:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-3/Watch_live_Sentinel-3B_launch ...

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ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations 6 мин. назад

Getting exciting at #ESOC in the build up to the #Sentinel3 B launch. 70 minutes left now until launch with all systems reporting GREEN FOR LAUNCH

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04/25/2018 19:57 Stephen Clark

T-minus 60 minutes. All parameters are reported green for launch of Europe's Sentinel 3B environmental satellite at 1757 GMT (1:57 p.m. EDT), or 8:57 p.m. local time at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

The Rockot launcher is green, and the approximately 2,600-pound (1,200-kilogram) Sentinel 3B satellite is go for liftoff.

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04/25/2018 20:12 Stephen Clark

A final poll of the Sentinel 3B control team in Germany gave a "go" for launch, and all ground stations in Sweden, Norway, Alaska and Antarctica are reported ready.

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ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations 3 мин. назад

ESOC Flight Director has conducted the final Roll Call with all positions confirming 'GO' status for #Sentinel3 launch - 45 minutes until lift-off!

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ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations 3 мин. назад

Mission Launch Director in #Plesetsk confirms #Sentinel3 B spacecraft status Ready for Launch! L - 34 minutes and counting...

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ESOC

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