27.09.2013, 01:06
First of SWARM Trio Delivered to Plesetsk
OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2013. A cargo aircraft operated by the Volga–Dnieper Air Lines has delivered the first one of the SWARM trio spacecrafts to the port of Arkhangelsk earlier this morning. Satellites are to be orbited simultaneously by a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome located in the Arkhangelsk Region.
Cleared by the customs, the aircraft with the spacecraft, the spacecraft GSE and the accompanying crew on board continued its flight to have landed at the Plesetsk airfield. Then both the spacecraft and the GSE were delivered by trucks to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to be installed at their dedicated points in the Integration-and-Test Facility (ITF). ITF is designed to support pre-launch processing of Rockot Integrated Launch Vehicles (ILVs). Preparatory operations for a sequence of spacecraft stand-alone tests have been started at ITF.
The remaining members of the SWARM trio will follow on September 19 and 21, 2013.
The task of the would-be constellation of the three 500-kg spacecrafts will be to study, with an unprecedented precision, the Earth’s magnetic field and its temporal evolution. The SWARM mission is the third one in the series of new Earth observation (EO) projects envisaged by ESA’s Living Planet Program.
The SWARM launch services contract was signed by ESA and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH. Set up in 1995, Eurockot Launch Services GmbH handle international marketing and provide commercial operation of the Rockot light-weight launch system. Using Rockot LV, Eurockot provide commercial launch services to operators of low Earth orbit satellites. Eurockot, which is now a joint venture of EADS Astrium and Khrunichev, is based in Bremen, Germany.
For over ten years Eurockot Launch Services GmbH has been providing commercial launch services to operators of small Earth observation, science and technology satellites into low Earth orbits. Earth observation missions comprise a substantial part of Rockot, a lightweight launch vehicle based on the converted Russian RS 18 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and designed to insert spacecraft with a mass of up to two metric tons into low earth orbits (LEO). Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow is the designer and manufacturer of Rockot LV and Breeze KM upper stage.
Rockot LV has been in use for the Eurockot commercial missions since 2000 while Russian spacecraft for various applications have been launching on Rockot since 2005.
In 2009, Rockot launchers successfully injected to orbit GOCE and SMOS, the first two EO satellites built under this European space program. The Swarm launch is scheduled for 4th Quarter 2013.
Cleared by the customs, the aircraft with the spacecraft, the spacecraft GSE and the accompanying crew on board continued its flight to have landed at the Plesetsk airfield. Then both the spacecraft and the GSE were delivered by trucks to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to be installed at their dedicated points in the Integration-and-Test Facility (ITF). ITF is designed to support pre-launch processing of Rockot Integrated Launch Vehicles (ILVs). Preparatory operations for a sequence of spacecraft stand-alone tests have been started at ITF.
The remaining members of the SWARM trio will follow on September 19 and 21, 2013.
The task of the would-be constellation of the three 500-kg spacecrafts will be to study, with an unprecedented precision, the Earth’s magnetic field and its temporal evolution. The SWARM mission is the third one in the series of new Earth observation (EO) projects envisaged by ESA’s Living Planet Program.
The SWARM launch services contract was signed by ESA and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH. Set up in 1995, Eurockot Launch Services GmbH handle international marketing and provide commercial operation of the Rockot light-weight launch system. Using Rockot LV, Eurockot provide commercial launch services to operators of low Earth orbit satellites. Eurockot, which is now a joint venture of EADS Astrium and Khrunichev, is based in Bremen, Germany.
For over ten years Eurockot Launch Services GmbH has been providing commercial launch services to operators of small Earth observation, science and technology satellites into low Earth orbits. Earth observation missions comprise a substantial part of Rockot, a lightweight launch vehicle based on the converted Russian RS 18 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and designed to insert spacecraft with a mass of up to two metric tons into low earth orbits (LEO). Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow is the designer and manufacturer of Rockot LV and Breeze KM upper stage.
Rockot LV has been in use for the Eurockot commercial missions since 2000 while Russian spacecraft for various applications have been launching on Rockot since 2005.
In 2009, Rockot launchers successfully injected to orbit GOCE and SMOS, the first two EO satellites built under this European space program. The Swarm launch is scheduled for 4th Quarter 2013.
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