Mohammed VI-B (MN35-B, Morocco EO Sat 2) - Vega (VV13) - Kourou ZLV - 21.11.2018, 01:42:31 UTC

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 13:23 - 20 нояб. 2018 г.

ARTICLE:
Arianespace Vega ready for Mohammed VI-B launch -

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/11/arianespace-vega-mohammed-vi-b-launch/ ... -

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11/20/2018 21:55 Stephen Clark

For the second time in a little over a year, a Moroccan military reconnaissance satellite secretly built in France is set for liftoff Tuesday night aboard a European Vega rocket in French Guiana.

The Mohammed VI-B satellite, named for the Moroccan king, will ride the Vega booster into orbit fr om Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff is timed for 0142:31 GMT Wednesday (8:42:31 p.m. EST; 10:42:31 p.m. French Guiana time Tuesday).

It will be the 13th launch of a Vega rocket, a light-class, solid-fueled launcher developed in Europe with Italian leadership. The launch will mark the 10th time a Vega rocket, part of Arianespace's launcher family, has lifted off on an Earth observation mission.

The Mohammed VI-B spacecraft, manufactured in partnership between Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defense and Space, is identical to a satellite launched in November 2017 to serve Morocco's civil government agencies and military.

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Like the launch last year, also aboard a Vega rocket, Arianespace did not acknowledge the payload for tonight's flight until the final weeks before launch, a break from the company's standard practice.



The Mohammed VI-B satellite's imaging capabilities are secret, but it carries an optical camera and image transmission system provided by Thales Alenia Space, which served as prime contractor for the mission under an agreement with the Moroccan government. Airbus Defense and Space provided the satellite bus, which was assembled in Toulouse, France.

The satellite has launch weight of around 2,442 pounds (1,108 kilograms), according to a press kit released by Arianespace last week.

The Moroccan government ordered the two high-resolution Earth observation satellites -- named Mohammed VI-A and VI-B -- from Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defense and Space in 2013 after an intergovernmental agreement between Morocco and France.

Developed in secrecy, Mohammed VI-B is the second of the two satellites to launch, heading for a sun-synchronous north-south orbit wh ere it will join its predecessor Mohammmd VI-A, which flies nearly 400 miles (640 kilometers) above Earth.

With two satellites, the Moroccan government can collect imagery of the same location with higher frequency. The Mohammed VI-A and VI-B satellites are the most capable optical surveillance satellites owned by any African nation.

The entire program, including two satellites, launch services and ground support, reportedly cost Morocco between 500 million and 600 million euros ($568 million to $681 million).

Official press releases on the Moroccan reconnaissance satellite program say the spacecraft will be "mostly used for mapping and land surveying activities, regional development, agricultural monitoring, the prevention and management of natural disasters, monitoring changes in the environment and desertification, as well as border and coastal surveillance."

But a report published last November by the French newspaper Le Monde suggested the satellites have a strong military purpose.

"We know that Morocco is at odds with Spain and Algeria regarding certain issues and that the situation is tense at the border with Mauritania. Both these satellites will give Morocco the means to gather intelligence and an independence that no one else has in the region," said Florence Gaillard-Sborowsky, researcher at France's Strategic Research Foundation and an expert in space issues in the Arab region, according to Le Monde.

"It is true that we consider it our right to be up-to-date. But no one should worry as we have good intentions," said Ahmed Réda Chami, Morocco's ambassador to the European Union, in remarks last year referring to the satellite program.

Observers believe the Mohammed VI satellites are based on Airbus' AstroSat-1000 design. An artist's concept of Mohammed VI-A shows an outward appearance similar to France's two Pleiades Earth observation satellites and two Falcon Eye spacecraft ordered from Airbus by the United Arab Emirates.

The Pleiades satellites, which provide imagery for government and commercial customers, were launched in 2011 and 2012. Each Pleiades satellite can take pictures with a resolution as sharp as 2.3 feet (70 centimeters), and post-processing can improve the image quality to 1.6 feet (50 centimeters).

The Falcon Eye and Mohammed VI satellites are believed to have comparable capabilities.

The final countdown for Tuesday's launch began at 1632 GMT (11:32 a.m. EST). Power-up of the Vega rocket is expected to begin around 1942 GMT (2:42 p.m. EST) to begin testing of its on-board computer and navigation systems.

Meanwhile, ground teams are turning on the Mohammed VI-B satellite and confirming its readiness for tonight's ride into orbit.

The computer will be tested and loaded with the mission's flight software program at 2102 GMT (4:02 p.m. EST), and the Vega's navigation unit will be aligned and verified functional 2112 GMT (4:12 p.m. EST).

The launch team will receive a weather briefing before rollback of the Vega launch facility's mobile gantry. The launch pad's mobile service tower will be retracted to launch position at 2227 GMT (5:27 p.m. EST), rolling on rails to a point 260 feet (80 meters) from the Vega rocket.

The launcher's navigation system will be tested again at 2317 GMT (6:17 p.m. EST), and Vega's telemetry transmitters and transponders are activated again after the rollback of the launch pad gantry around 0027 GMT (7:27 p.m. EST).

Engineers will verify the readiness of Vega's systems at 0052 GMT (7:52 p.m. EST), and a final pre-launch weather briefing is scheduled for 0132 GMT (8:32 p.m. EST).

The synchronized launch sequence takes over the countdown about four minutes prior to liftoff. The computer-controlled final sequence checks thousands of parameters in the final steps of the countdown.

After liftoff, Vega will clear the pad's four lightning towers and pitch north from the Guiana Space Center, heading over the Atlantic Ocean and surpassing the speed of sound in about 30 seconds.

The Vega's solid-fueled P80FW first stage, producing a maximum of 683,000 pounds of thrust, burns out 114 seconds after liftoff, giving way to the launcher's Zefiro 23 second stage at an altitude of about 33 miles (53 kilometers).

After a 102-second burn, the second stage consumes its propellant 3 minutes, 38 seconds, after launch and separates. The Vega's third stage, the Zefiro 9A motor, ignites 3 minutes, 50 seconds, into the mission.

A few seconds later, Vega's Swiss-built 8.5-foot-diameter (2.6-meter) payload fairing will jettison.

Vega's third stage fires for more than two minutes, turning off and separating 6 minutes, 29 seconds after liftoff.

The fourth stage, known as AVUM, ignites its liquid-fueled Ukrainian RD-843 engine 8 minutes into the mission, burning for 7-and-a-half minutes to reach a transfer orbit above Earth.

After coasting more than 36 minutes, the AVUM fourth stage will fire again at Plus+52 minutes, 3 seconds for almost two minutes to reach a circular orbit for deployment of the Mohammed VI-B spacecraft.

Separation of the Mohammed VI-B satellite is scheduled for 55 minutes, 21 seconds after liftoff.

A third ignition of the upper stage engine will de-orbit the rocket to avoid creating space junk.

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11/21/2018 03:27 Stephen Clark

All systems are reported to be "go" for launch tonight in an instantaneous launch opportunity at 0142:31 GMT (8:42:31 p.m. EST).

So far in the countdown, Vega's systems have been powered on and launch controllers have checked communications, tracking and command links between the rocket and ground facilities at the Guiana Space Center.

The launch pad's 16-story mobile gantry should now be retracted to its launch position about 260 feet (80 meters) fr om the rocket.

Спойлер

The 270-square-mile space center, run by the French space agency, CNES, and the European Space Agency, is located on the jungle coastline of French Guiana, situated on the northeast corner of South America.

The Vega launch pad, known by its French acronym ZLV, is about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) southwest of the Ariane 5 launch complex. It was built on the former site of ELA-1, the home of Ariane 1, Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 launchers from 1979 until 1989.

Construction of the Vega launch pad began in 2004, including the building of a new 16-story mobile gantry weighing some 1,000 metric tons. A fixed umbilical mast standing 105 feet tall provides air conditioning to the Vega's payload.

Workers also added four lightning towers at the pad to protect the Vega rocket from thunderstorms.

Unlike the Ariane 5 rocket, the Vega's stages are stacked on the pad inside the mobile gantry, which provides protection of the launcher from weather at the spaceport.

Vega's countdown is managed from Guiana Space Center's prime control center less than a mile from the launch pad, the same building wh ere Ariane 5's countdown is controlled.

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11/21/2018 03:43 Stephen Clark

T-minus 60 minutes and counting. There continue to be no problems reported in the countdown for launch of Vega tonight. Liftoff is set for 0142:31 GMT (8:42:31 p.m. EST; 10:42:31 p.m. local time) from French Guiana.

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11/21/2018 04:02 Stephen Clark

T-minus 40 minutes. Some statistics on today's flight:

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• 13th Vega launch
• 2nd Vega launch of 2018
• 9th launch from Guiana Space Center in 2018
• 38th launch from the ELA-1/SLV launch pad
• 123rd Airbus Defense and Space satellite launched by Arianespace
• 2nd Moroccan satellite launched by Arianespace
• 303rd Arianespace mission
  

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11/21/2018 04:07 Stephen Clark

T-minus 35 minutes. The Vega rocket has just one second to launch tonight or else liftoff will be delayed to another day. The time is fixed for 0142:31 GMT (8:42:31 p.m. EST; 10:42:31 p.m. French Guiana time).

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11/21/2018 04:18 Stephen Clark

T-minus 24 minutes. Tonight's mission from liftoff through deployment of the Mohammed VI-B observation satellite in the proper orbit will last more than 55 minutes, including two firings by the Vega rocket's AVUM upper stage engine to place the spacecraft at the correct altitude and inclination.

Only then can Arianespace officials declare success on tonight's launch, the company's ninth of the year, and the second of 2018 to use the light-class Vega launcher.

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