| | |  | Ariane 5 with Envisat ready for launch | |
Ariane-5 with Envisat lifts off on schedule
1 March 2002
Lift off on schedule, booster separation completed, fairing jettisoned and all orbital parameters are nominal. More news follows shortly.
Status reports on on the Envisat launch page.
See the launcher via the Spaceport web-cams.
28 February
Final minutes to launch and the white Ariane 5
stands spotlit against the tropical darkness. Fuelling
with liquid hydrogen and oxygen was completed by
7.30 pm (local time). The last weather forecast has confirmed
satisfactory conditions, with one further weather
forecast due at 9.43 pm. At 8 pm there was a status check
of the ESA-coordinated tracking stations across the
globe that will follow Envisat in space, from Kiruna
in Sweden to Perth, Australia.
15:00 CET. Ariane 5 and Envisat's roll-out seemed to go without a hitch yesterday but around 6 pm local time an anomaly with the venting at the level of the Vehicle Equipment Bay was discovered.
| | Envisat on the launch pad | |
Technicians worked overnight to check the problem and today's roll-out started at 8 am local time, taking one hour. It takes another hour to finish connecting the launcher to the launch pad. This leaves the launch still on schedule, with final countdown set to begin around 11 am local time for a 10.07 pm launch (02:07 CET).
11:00 CET. During the night Ariane-5 was brought back to the final assembly building (BAF) for checkout. This morning it is being rolled out to the launch pad once more, ready for launch tonight.
You can follow the progress on the ESA Envisat launch page via the Spaceport web-cams. With our video on demand service you can learn more about Envisat and see replays of the main events, such as the rollout.
27 February
The Envisat roll-out began at 10.30 am local time (14:30 CET). The door of the 90 m tall BAF building slid open, displaying the 52 m tall Ariane 5 launcher on its mobile launch platform, standing higher than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
| | Roll-out of Ariane 5 with Envisat | |
Except the Arc de Triomphe doesn't move, and the Ariane 5 does, progressing at a maximum speed of four km an hour. The steel-built mobile launch platform is being pulled along rail tracks spaced more than twenty metres apart by a surprisingly-normal looking tractor, painted ESA blue.
It will cross the main road - closed, of course, to traffic this morning - and make its stately way across to the launch site. The launcher is connected to a single umbilical tower, supplying fluids, electrical power and air conditioning.
The concrete launch pad stands stark in the distance, distinguished by four lightning towers and a water tower.
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