ESA's new Envisat satellite is an advanced polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite which will be launched by Ariane 5 at the end of 2001. It carries a package of ten multi-disciplinary instruments to observe the Earth and its atmosphere form space in a synergistic fashion, offering unprecedented opportunities in environmental monitoring and operational Earth observation.
Prior to its launch Envisat had to go through a series of important tests in order to assess that everything will operate nominally on its journey to, and once in, orbit. Test deployments of Envisat's antenna and solar panels are an essential part in the preparation of Envisat before launch.
These rushes filmed in the cleanroom of Hydra at ESA's ESTEC site on 14 July 2000, includes tests on the deployment mechanism of the satellites solar panels.

01:01:03 Engineer in cleanroom overalls holding up sign ""First Batch cutting HD 1, 2, 11, 12 approx -5 min counting""
01:01:12 CU part of batch cutting mechanism
01:02:05 Part of batch cutting mehanism springs out
01:02:12 Engineers working on the batch cutting test
01:03:27 CU a different part of the batch cutting mechanism during test
01:04:52 Engineers with stopwatches timing the batch cutting
01:05:12 CU of solar panels being released during final batch cutting test
01:06:38 Engineers checking solar panel after batch cutting
01:06:38 First part of solar panel deploy, incl zoom in to show cut bindings
01:10:12 Engineer checking cut bindings
01:11:25 CU part of deployment mechanism during mini deployment
01:11:58 WA mini deployment mechanism
01:13:09 Engineers prepare satellite for further testing
01:17:03 Another part of the deployment mechanism during testing
01:21:09 PAN to a different area on the satellite during the test
01:21:37 Further mini deployment testing
01:34:03 END