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Integral operations
| | | | The mission
| The task of Integral, ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, is to gather the most energetic radiation that comes from space. The spacecraft was launched October 2002 and will help to solve some of the biggest mysteries in astronomy.
Gamma rays are even more powerful than the X-rays used in medical examinations. Fortunately, the Earth's atmosphere acts as a shield to protect us from this dangerous cosmic radiation. However this means that gamma rays from space can only be detected by satellites. Integral is currently the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched. It detects radiation from the most violent events far away and from processes that made the Universe habitable.
Credits: ESA. Illustration by D. Ducros | |  |  | |
| | | | The Flight Control Team
| Integral Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM) Richard Southworth
Credits: ESA/J. Mai http://www.juergenmai.com | | | | |
| | | | Mission operations overview
| Integral launched at 06:41 CEST 17 October 2002 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Credits: ESA - S.Corvaja | | | | |
| | | | The ground stations
Redu, Goldstone
| The Redu site, which hosts multiple ground stations, is located in the Ardennes region of Belgium, about 1 km from the village of Redu which is in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The stations provide tracking capabilities in VHF, C-band, L-band, S-band, Ku-band and Ka-band, and provide in-orbit tests (IOT) of telecommunication satellites. The S-band station is presently used for W3 (Eutelsat). The next ESA Science project to use the S-band station is Integral.
The station co-ordinates, measured at the brass plate on the interferometer patch are 5.146231°E longitude, 50.002685°N latitude.
This reference point is 378.3 m above sea level. The co-ordinates of the TMS-1 antenna are 5.14518047°E longitude, 50.00205516°N latitude. The antenna is sited at 385.583 m with respect to the WGS-84 reference ellipsoid [2]. The geostationary visibility above 10° elevation, is between 54.9°W and 65.1°E.
Credits: ESA - A. Van Der Geest | | | | |
| | | | | | The Goldstone antenna in California - one of NASA's Deep Space Network antennae | | | | |
| | | | Ground segment & mission control system
| This mission uses SCOS-2000, the European standard mission control system developed at ESOC.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | The Integral mission and its interfaces with the Principal Investigators/Instrument Teams and the scientific community.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | | | | Last update: 15 March 2011 | |
| | Track ESA satellites More information Integral overviewIntegral in-depthIntegral Science Operations CentreIntegral Science Data Centre Images, animations Ground stations Redu stationNASA DSN - Goldstone ground stationLaunch vehicle Proton launcherRelated missions XMM-Newton operations Related video Related Gamma rays (Wikipedia)
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