ESA Science News
12 Nov 1999
BREAKING NEWS
Green light for XMM launch on 10 December
All lights are green to launch ESA’s X-ray Space Observatory on 10 December with a launch window starting at 14:32 GMT.
The ESA Director of Science Roger-Maurice Bonnet has given the green light to Robert Laine, the XMM Project Manager, to proceed
to the next phase in preparing XMM for launch. This means that the XMM spacecraft is confirmed for a launch on 10 December
1999.
M. Lainé, currently in French Guiana overseeing the final operations before launch, is delighted. “All actions on the flight hardware
of our spacecraft are closed, the science instruments are in flight configuration, everything is on schedule for the big day.”
The next milestones in the satellite campaign will be the fuelling of the spacecraft, due to start on Monday 15th November, followed
on the 19th by the arrival of the Ariane 504 launcher in the Final Assembly building, where the satellite is being prepared.
USEFUL LINKS FOR THIS STORY
- Campaign account
http://www.estec.esa.nl/spdwww/xmm/l-campaign.htm - IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://sci.esa.int/missions/image.cfm?TypeID=20&ContentID=7671&table=ContentTable]XMM being prepared for hydrazine loading. In the foreground the
(transfert) tank containing the hydrazine.
