ESA and TAS teams inspect MTG-I2 before fuelling

The Meteosat Third Generation-Imager2 (MTG-I2) satellite has been inspected by teams from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Thales Alenia Space (TAS).

Since the beginning of pre-launch preparations at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, MTG-I2 has been taken out of its protecting casing (used for transportation from the TAS cleanroom in France) and has undergone a series of checks and inspections. This latest inspection confirmed that everything is nominal before the hazardous propellant loading phase begins during the week 10-14 August.

MTG-I2 is part of the MTG constellation – a cutting-edge weather mission based on the long-standing partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Eumetsat. MTG guarantees the continuity of data for weather forecasting from geostationary orbit for the next two decades.

The satellite will improve data for weather forecasts in Europe and in North Africa with its two powerful imagers. One is the Flexible Combined Imager, which provides a rapid scanning service every 2.5 minutes over Europe. The other instrument on board MTG-I2 is the Lightning Imager. This is also an innovative and powerful instrument, able to capture individual lightning events, by day and night.

As well as providing a huge increase in the quality, quantity and frequency of data for European weather forecasting, the MTG instruments also provide climate data.

The satellite will be transported into orbit by Ariane 6.