CSG-1, CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), ANGELS, +... - Soyuz-ST-B /Fregat-MT (VS23) - Kourou ELS - 17.12.2019, 08:54:20 UTC

Автор tnt22, 17.10.2019 22:36:44

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tnt22

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Association des amis de l'activité spatiale dans le monde
15 ч. · 

SOYUZ ST-B Vol 23 - CSG PFM - CHEOPS - CUBESAT ANGELS - CUBESAT EYESAT - CUBESAT OPS-SAT et CUBESAT OPENCOSMOS.

Установка ASAP на РБ Фрегат















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tnt22

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Association des amis de l'activité spatiale dans le monde
3 ч. · 

SOYUZ ST-B Vol 23 - CSG PFM - CHEOPS - CUBESAT ANGELS - CUBESAT EYESAT - CUBESAT OPS-SAT et CUBESAT OPENCOSMOS.

Нанесение логотипов миссии на головной обтекатель РН.







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tnt22

https://www.arianespace.com/mission-update/vs23-soyuz-rollout/
ЦитироватьSoyuz | December 12, 2019
Soyuz reaches the launch zone for Arianespace's final mission of 2019


The basic three-stage Soyuz for Flight VS23 is suspended over the launch pad following today's rollout at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Soyuz vehicle for Arianespace's year-ending mission has arrived at the launch zone in French Guiana, where it stands ready to receive the multi-satellite payload that will be lofted on this December 17 flight.

Soyuz was moved fr om the Spaceport's MIK launcher assembly facility to the ELS launch zone, using a transport/erector rail car in a horizontal transfer process. When positioned over the launch pad, the vehicle was erected into a vertical orientation, wh ere it is suspended in place by four large support arms.

The mobile gantry subsequently was moved into position around the basic three-stage launcher, providing protection for the upcoming installation of Soyuz' "upper composite" – which consists of five passengers integrated with the ASAP-S dispenser system, plus the Fregat upper stage and payload fairing.

Payload profile



The ASAP-S auxiliary payload-carrying platform, with its ANGELS, EyeSat and OPS-SAT satellite passengers installed – along with CHEOPS integrated at its center – is positioned atop the Fregat upper stage for Flight VS23 during activity in the Spaceport's S3B clean room.

COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation – an Earth observation spacecraft – is the primary passenger for next week's mission and will be deployed first in the flight sequence. Manufactured by Thales Alenia Space, it is the fourth satellite to be launched by Arianespace for the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and Ministry of Defence.

The secondary passenger, the Airbus-produced Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS), is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission dedicated to studying bright, nearby stars that already are known to host exoplanets in order to make high-precision observations of the planet's size.

Three auxiliary payloads also are on board: ANGELS and EyeSat, both for the French CNES space agency; and OPS-SAT for Tyvak on behalf of ESA.

Closing out 2019

Next week's mission, which is designated Flight VS23 in Arianespace's numbering system, will be the 23rd launch of Soyuz from Europe's Spaceport. It is scheduled to lift off at precisely 5:54 a.m. local time in French Guiana, with the five passengers to be deployed during a four-hour-plus flight sequence. Total lift performance to Sun-synchronous orbit is estimated at 3,250 kg.

Flight VS23 will close out Arianespace's 2019 launch activity, which has involved eight flights from the Spaceport so far: four performed with a heavy-lift Ariane 5, two with the medium Soyuz and two utilizing the lightweight Vega.



The Flight VS23 Soyuz launcher's transfer process begins with its rollout from the MIK assembly facility on its way to the launch zone at the Spaceport in French Guiana.
    [/li]
  • Larger versions of the photos above are available in the Gallery.
Liftoff times for Flight VS23:

[TH]
Kourou,
French Guiana
[/TH][TH]
UTC
(Universal Time)
[/TH][TH]
Washington,
D.C.
[/TH][TH]
Paris,
France
[/TH][TH]
Rome,
Italy
[/TH][TH]
Moscow,
Russia
[/TH][/TR][TR][TD]
5:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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8:54:20 on Dec. 17
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3:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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11:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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zandr

https://tass.ru/kosmos/7337651
ЦитироватьРакету "Союз" доставили на стартовый комплекс космодрома Куру для запуска 17 декабря
ПАРИЖ, 12 декабря. /ТАСС/. Российская ракета-носитель "Союз", запуск которой запланирован на 17 декабря, перемещена на стартовый комплекс космодрома Куру во Французской Гвиане. Об этом в четверг в Twitter сообщил глава корпорации Arianespace Стефан Исраэль.

"Ракета "Союз" прибыла на стартовый комплекс для предстоящей миссии! Она выведет на орбиту ряд спутников 17 декабря", - отметил он. Как указали в Arianespace, запуск российской ракеты станет завершающим пуском, проведенным компанией в текущем году.

В конце ноября Исраэль подчеркивал, что это "будет важный запуск, поскольку речь идет о выводе на орбиту спутника серии COSMO-SkyMed второго поколения". Он изготовлен корпорацией Thales Alenia Space по заказу правительства Италии. Также будет выведен на орбиту европейский космический телескоп CHEOPS и три спутника малых размеров, в частности французский малый научный спутник EyeSat.

В настоящий момент планируется, что ракета стартует в 11:54 мск.

tnt22

Цитировать
Association des amis de l'activité spatiale dans le monde
7 ч. · 

SOYUZ ST-B Vol 23 - CSG PFM - CHEOPS - CUBESAT ANGELS - CUBESAT EYESAT - CUBESAT OPS-SAT et CUBESAT OPENCOSMOS.









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tnt22

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Association des amis de l'activité spatiale dans le monde
8 ч. · 

SOYUZ ST-B Vol 23 - CSG PFM - CHEOPS - CUBESAT ANGELS - CUBESAT EYESAT - CUBESAT OPS-SAT et CUBESAT OPENCOSMOS.

Вывоз РН на СК


















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tnt22


tnt22

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Association des amis de l'activité spatiale dans le monde
4 ч. · 

SOYUZ ST-B Vol 23 - CSG PFM - CHEOPS - CUBESAT ANGELS - CUBESAT EYESAT - CUBESAT OPS-SAT et CUBESAT OPENCOSMOS.

Подъём и установка ГБ на РН






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tnt22

https://www.arianespace.com/mission-update/vs23-final-payload-integration/
ЦитироватьSoyuz | December 13, 2019
Soyuz receives the payload for Arianespace's year-ending mission on December 17

Arianespace's next medium-lift Soyuz to be launched from French Guiana is now complete following the integration of its "upper composite," made up of five satellite passengers, their protective payload fairing and the Fregat upper stage.


Integration of Soyuz' "upper composite" took place inside the ELS launch zone's mobile gantry.

This activity was performed at the Spaceport's ELS launch complex near the town of Sinnamary, beginning with the composite's transfer on a special transporter, followed by hoisting to the upper level of a purpose-built mobile gantry.

All is now ready for final checkout and Saturday's launch readiness review, which will clear the way for a December 17 liftoff at precisely 5:54 a.m., local time in French Guiana. The mission – carrying a total payload mass estimated at 3,250 kg. – is designated Flight VS23 in Arianespace's numbering system.

Multiple deployments for Soyuz

The mission's primary passenger – COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, an Earth observation spacecraft for the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and Ministry of Defence – will be deployed first during the four-hour-plus flight sequence. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space.

Next to be released by Soyuz is the Airbus-produced Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) – which will be utilized by the European Space Agency (ESA) on a mission to study bright, nearby stars that already are known to host exoplanets, in order to make high-precision observations of the planet's size.

Completing the mission will be the deployments of three auxiliary payloads: EyeSat, for the French CNES space agency; ANGELS, for CNES and Hemeria; and OPS-SAT, for Tyvak on behalf of ESA.

Flight VS23 will be Arianespace's third launch in 2019 with a medium-lift Soyuz vehicle. Overall, it will be the ninth flight this year using the company's full family of launchers, which also includes the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega.
    [/li]
  • Larger versions of the photos above are available in the Gallery.
Liftoff times for Flight VS23:

[TH]
Kourou,
French Guiana
[/TH][TH]
UTC
(Universal Time)
[/TH][TH]
Washington,
D.C.
[/TH][TH]
Paris,
France
[/TH][TH]
Rome,
Italy
[/TH][TH]
Moscow,
Russia
[/TH][/TR][TR][TD]
5:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
[/TD][TD]
8:54:20 on Dec. 17
[/TD][TD]
3:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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11:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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tnt22

https://www.roscosmos.ru/27860/
Цитировать14.12.2019 09:00
В ГКЦ идет подготовка к пуску






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В Гвианском космическом центре состоялся вывоз на стартовую позицию ракеты-носителя «Союз-СТ-А» с разгонным блоком «Фрегат-М» и коммерческими космическими аппаратами на борту.

Завершив вертикализацию, специалисты предприятий Роскосмоса провели операции по стыковке коммуникаций «пакета», сборке схем термостатирования, стыковке заправочных коммуникаций и другие операции, предусмотренные графиком подготовки.

Особенностью подготовки пуска в Гвианском космическом центре является раздельная транспортировка трех ступеней носителя и космической головной части с последующей их сборкой на пусковой установке с использованием мобильной башни обслуживания. Поэтому позднее на ракету «Союз-СТ-А» установили головную часть в составе разгонного блока и космических аппаратов.

Пуск ракеты-носителя «Союз-СТ-А» запланирован на 17 декабря 2019 года в 11:54 мск.

tnt22


tnt22

https://www.arianespace.com/mission-update/vs23-soyuz-launch-review/
ЦитироватьSoyuz | December 14, 2019
Soyuz receives the "all clear" for Arianespace's December 17 liftoff

Arianespace's year-ending Soyuz mission – which will orbit innovative satellite solutions for European institutional needs – has been authorized for launch from the Spaceport in French Guiana.


Prior to integration on Soyuz, the "upper composite" – which consists of five passengers integrated with the ASAP-S dispenser system, plus the Fregat upper stage and payload fairing – was adorned with related mission and customer logos.

Approval for liftoff was given at the conclusion of today's launch readiness review, which verified the "go" status of Soyuz, its multi-passenger payload, the Spaceport's infrastructure and the network of downrange tracking stations.

The upcoming mission – designated Flight VS23 in Arianespace's numbering system and planned for December 17 – will be performed from the Spaceport's purpose-built ELS launch facility for Soyuz.

Liftoff is scheduled at precisely 5:54 a.m. local time in French Guiana, with the five passengers to be deployed during a four-hour-plus flight sequence. Total lift performance to Sun-synchronous orbit is estimated at 3,250 kg.

One Soyuz, five passengers

The primary passenger for Flight VS23 – the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation Earth observation spacecraft – will be deployed first in the flight sequence. Manufactured by Thales Alenia Space, it is being launched for the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and Ministry of Defence.

CHEOPS (Characterising Exoplanet Satellite), Soyuz' secondary passenger, is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission dedicated to studying bright, nearby stars that already are known to host exoplanets in order to make high-precision observations of the planet's size. The spacecraft was produced by Airbus.

In addition, three auxiliary payloads are to be deployed on Flight VS23: EyeSat, for the French CNES space agency; ANGELS, for CNES and Hemeria; and OPS-SAT, for Tyvak on behalf of ESA.
    [/li]
  • A larger versions of the photo above is available in the Gallery.
Liftoff times for Flight VS23:

[TH]
Kourou,
French Guiana
[/TH][TH]
UTC
(Universal Time)
[/TH][TH]
Washington,
D.C.
[/TH][TH]
Paris,
France
[/TH][TH]
Rome,
Italy
[/TH][TH]
Moscow,
Russia
[/TH][/TR][TR][TD]
5:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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8:54:20 on Dec. 17
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3:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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9:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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11:54:20 a.m. on Dec. 17
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tnt22

ЦитироватьArianespace TV VS23 Presentation
Arianespace Flight VS23 – COSMO-SkyMed 2nd Generation Presentation

arianespace

15 дек. 2019 г.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FVGli3U08shttps://www.youtube.com/embed/6FVGli3U08s (2:35)

tnt22

http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Watch_Cheops_launch_live
ЦитироватьWatch Cheops launch live
13/12/2019

Tune in to ESA Web TV from  08:30 GMT (09:30 CET) Tuesday 17 December to watch ESA's exoplanet mission soar into space on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Cheops, the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, is scheduled for liftoff at 08:54 GMT (09:54 CET)  on its exciting mission to study planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. It is ESA's first mission dedicated to the study of exoplanets.

Cheops will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet's transit across the star's disc.  The mission will target Earth- to Neptune-sized planets and will provide information about the character of the planets: that is, if they are rocky, gassy, icy or perhaps harbour oceans. This is a critical step in understanding the nature of planets beyond our own Solar System.

Cheops shares the ride into space with the Italian space agency's Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite and three CubeSats: ESA's OPS-SAT and the French space agency's CNES's EYE-SAT and ANGELS satellites.

Cheops is scheduled to separate from the upper stage at  11:19 GMT (12:19 CET). The first opportunity for acquisition of signal is expected some 30-40 minutes later, and will be announced from the Mission Operations Centre located at INTA, Spain.


Exoplanet satellite encapsulated

ESA TV Programme live from Kourou (all times CET)

Watch live via ESA Web TV 09:30 – 15:00

Key moments:

09:54 – Launch
10:17 – Separation of Cosmo-SkyMed
12:19 – Separation of Cheops
14:05 – Separation of OPS-SAT
14:11 – All CubeSats separated
14:15 – Official speeches

Around Cheops separation, commentary will be provided in English by ESA's project scientist Kate Isaak, and in French by the Cheops consortium principal investigator Willy Benz.


Cheops launch details and timeline

Follow online

Join the conversation online with the hashtag #Cheops.

For live updates follow @ESA_Cheops and @esascience.

Twitter coverage will also include insights from ESA's European launch media event hosted at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre, ESAC, near Madrid, Spain.

Press release

A press release will be issued following the separation of all spacecraft and CubeSats.

Cheops is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, with important contribution from 10 other ESA Member States.

OPS-SAT is an ESA CubeSat. It was developed under the management of ESA in partnership with the Graz University of Technology and partners in Austria, Poland, Germany and Denmark.

tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/15/esa-satellite-set-for-launch-to-measure-sizes-of-exoplanets/
ЦитироватьESA satellite set for launch to measure sizes of exoplanets
December 15, 2019 | Stephen Clark


Artist's illustration of the CHEOPS spacecraft observing an exoplanet transiting in front of its parent star. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

A compact exoplanet observatory built in Europe to help astronomers determine the sizes of distant worlds around other stars is scheduled for launch Tuesday from French Guiana aboard a Soyuz rocket.

Designed to build upon discoveries made by previous pioneering exoplanet telescopes — like NASA's Kepler mission — the European Space Agency's Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite, or CHEOPS, mission will orbit some 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth with a small but ultra-sensitive telescope looking at faraway stars.

CHEOPS will be capable of registering tiny changes in the brightness of stars as planets block their light from reaching the telescope. This way of observing exoplanets is called the transit method, and it's been used by Kepler, NASA's TESS observatory, and the French space agency's CoRoT mission to discover planets around other stars.

CHEOPS is astronomers designed it to follow up on discoveries made by other telescopes.

"What makes CHEOPS quite special to all the other transit missions so far is that CHEOPS is not really a discovery mission," said Willy Benz, the mission's principal investigator from the University of Bern in Switzerland. "It's a follow-up. We will be looking at one system at a time, and not trying to discover thousands of others."

"The idea is that we know now several thousands of these exoplanets," Benz said. "We are more interested slowly toward characterizing them with precision, knowing what they're made of and their temperature, and so on and so forth."

Astronomers can determine the mass of an exoplanet through a technique called the radial velocity method, in which telescopes can detect the wobble of a star caused by the pull of gravity from a smaller planetary companion. The amplitude of the wobble can tell scientists about the planet's mass.

Combining the size information from CHEOPS with mass estimates obtained through other telescopes can yield significant insights into exoplanets, Benz said.


Artist's illustration of CHEOPS with its telescope door open. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

"By measuring the radius and by knowing the mass through radial velocity, we can place these different planets and try to figure out what they're made of, whether they're rocky planets, whether they're a gas ball, an icy world, or the like," he said. "You need to have pretty small error bars if you want to say anything meaningful about this, and this is why we need precision measurements."

CHEOPS can help identify prime targets for additional observations by future missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for launch in 2021.

"We want to look at atmospheres, following planets in their orbits around the star, we may want to see if a planet has moons, rings, and so on, and we want to provide the best targets for the very large facilities under construction or going into orbit like JWST," Benz said.

David Ehrenreich, mission scientist for the CHEOPS consortium at the University of Geneva, said future large telescopes likes JWST and the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile will be under high demand.

"We think that in the coming years there will be far too many very interesting small planets to characterize with powerful facilties than observing time available on these over-booked facilities," Ehrenreich said. "So it will become extremely important to down-select the golden target — the very best of these targets — so we could go and spend a lot of time with Hubble, with James Webb, and with the ELT on the ground.

"CHEOPS is going to be a key in this process by confirming and obtaining the first step characterization of these many targets, and determining which one we should look for," Ehrenreich said.

ESA's new exoplanet telescope will observe about 300 targets during its three-and-a-half-year primary mission, according to Ehrenreich.

CHEOPS is small. It stands 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) tall and stretches 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) wide, with a fixed solar array to generate electricity. The satellite was built in Spain by Airbus Defense and Space and weighs 601 pounds (273 kilograms), according to the mission's press kit.


The CHEOPS spacecraft inside a clean room at the launch base in French Guiana. In the background a multi-payload adapter structure known as the ASAP-S is visible. During launch, CHEOPS will ride inside the ASAP-S structure, while the Italian CSG 1 radar satellite will be mounted on top. ESA – M. Pedoussaut

The budget for the CHEOPS mission is also relatively modest, barely rising above the $110 million (100 million-euro) mark. ESA funded about half the mission's cost, including the procurement of the spacecraft bus and launch services. A consortium of 11 European nations, led by Switzerland and Spain, contributed funding for the rest of the mission's cost.

ESA selected CHEOPS as the agency's first S-class, or small, science mission in 2012. The S-class missions join a roster of more expensive medium and large missions in ESA's space science portfolio.

"It's a mission to deliver world-class exoplanet science, and specifically what we're doing is measuring sizes of known exoplanets using the techniques of high-precision transit photometry," said Kate Isaak, CHEOPS project scientist at ESA.

"It follows on from CoRoT, from Kepler and from TESS, and it's the first in a series of three missions from ESA that are dedicated to exoplanet science," Isaak said. "CHEOPS will provide us with key information to understand the structure of small planets, and how they form and evolve. This will be an essential step in a worldwide endeavor ... to search for exoplanets like our own Earth."

The choice of a low-altitude orbit for CHEOPS helped save money, officials said.

"Being in a low Earth orbit has the advantage that it's relatively cheap," Benz said. "It doesn't require too much fancy communication, but it has disadvantages. The Earth hides part of the sky. You're flying through radiation belts, which cause problems in your electronics and in your detectors."

CHEOPS will fly in an orbit that hugs the terminator, or the boundary between the day and night sides of Earth.

"The idea is to always observe stars that are located over the dark side of the Earth," Benz said.

CHEOPS hosts a 12-inch (30-centimeter) telescope designed to help astronomers measure the sizes of planets orbiting other stars. "You may wonder what's the big fuss in a 30-centimeter telescope. You can almost buy it in a supermarket," Benz said.

The CHEOPS telescope is tuned to detect faint changes in light, with optics designed to eliminate stray light from Earth, the moon, and other bright nearby objects.


The CHEOPS mission in the context of previous and future space missions dedicated to exoplanet science (top) and exoplanet-sensitive missions (bottom). Credit: ESA

The sensitivity of the CHEOPS telescope — with optics from Italy, a focal plane module from Germany, detectors from the United Kingdom, and a baffle and cover assembly from Belgium — will allow astronomers to measure the sizes of exoplanets as small Earth, according to Benz.

"If an Earth passes in front of the sun, as seen from a distance, you will see 100 ppm, 100 parts per million change in the light," Benz said. "If Jupiter is passing, you will see 1 percent, so it's much bigger. This is .01 percent ... You need to go to space to see these kinds of changes. It's the amplitude of these changes in the light that determines then how accurate your mission has to measure the light."

With multiple observations of the same transiting planet, CHEOPS could measure the size an exoplanet with a precision of 10 percent, according to Ravit Helled, a CHEOPS contributor from the University of Zurich.

Astronomers are particularly interested in a class of exoplanets bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

"There is a large population of exoplanets of intermediate masses and radii, and they are very common in the galaxy," Helled said. "And these are planets that we don't know how to characterize so much ... With CHEOPS, we will be able to hopefully characterize more of these intermediate-class planets."

CHEOPS is buttoned up for launch on top of a Russian Soyuz ST-A booster at the Guiana Space Center, located in the northeastern coast of South America. The ESA science mission is set to ride into orbit with Italy's first COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, or CSG 1, radar surveillance satellite, and three CubeSats.

There is an instantaneous launch opportunity available Tuesday at 0854:20 GMT (3:54:20 a.m. EST; 5:54:20 a.m. French Guiana time).


The Soyuz ST-A rocket slated to launch the CSG 1 and CHEOPS satellites rolled out to its launch pad in Dec. 12 in French Guiana. After raising the rocket vertical on the launch pad, ground crews hoisted the Soyuz payload fairing containing the mission's Fregat upper stage and five satellite payloads on top of the launch vehicle. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

The Soyuz ST-A rocket, with the help of a Fregat upper stage, will deliver the mission's five satellite payloads into three different polar orbits on Tuesday's flight, according to Arianespace, which oversees Soyuz launch operations in French Guiana.

Burning kerosene and liquid oxygen, the Soyuz ST-A will head north from the European-run spaceport in South America and drop its four liquid-fueled boosters into the Atlantic Ocean around two minutes after liftoff.

The Soyuz rocket's payload shroud will jettison at T+plus 3 minutes, 16 seconds, followed by shutdown and separation of the Soyuz core stage at T+plus 4 minutes, 47 seconds. The third stage's RD-0110 engine will fire for about four minutes, then the Soyuz rocket's Fregat upper stage will separate to begin a lengthy series of six burns to inject five satellites into three distinct orbits.

The first Fregat engine firing will last a little more than 10 minutes to place the CSG 1 radar surveillance satellite into a 384-mile-high (619-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit inclined 97.8 degrees to the equator.

The 4,861-pound (2,205-kilogram) CSG 1 satellite, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space, will separate from the top of the Fregat upper stage at 0917 GMT (4:17 a.m. EST), or at T+plus 22 minutes, 43 seconds.

The CSG 1 spacecraft carries a radar instrument designed to observe Earth during day and night passes, capturing imagery with a resolution better than a meter, or about 3.3 feet. CSG 1 is the first of two new second-generation Italian radar observation satellites ensure no data gaps from Cosmo-SkyMed fleet as the four first-generation satellites move beyond their original five-year design lives.

The Cosmo-SkyMed system's first four satellites launched from California on United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rockets from 2007 through 2010.

The Cosmo-SkyMed radar reconnaissance network, intended for military and civilian use, is funded by the Italian Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

Three more Fregat engine firings over the next two hours — along with the separation of the top of the Fregat's multi-payload adapter structure — will set up for separation of the CHEOPS payload at T+plus 2 hours, 24 minutes, 41 seconds, or at 1119 GMT (6:19 a.m. EST).

CHEOPS will deploy from the Fregat stage in a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) orbit with an inclination of 98.2 degrees.

Two more engine burns will position the Fregat upper stage in a lower 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit for separation of the mission's other three secondary payloads. The three CubeSats are scheduled to be separated from the Fregat stage by 1307 GMT (8:07 a.m. EST).