Preparations for Arianespace Flight 165 marked another milestone this week
as the mission’s six auxiliary payloads were integrated on the Ariane 5
launcher.
This activity took place in the upper levels of the Spaceport’s Final
Assembly Building, where the ASAP 5 auxiliary payload dispenser ring was
moved into place atop Ariane 5’s central cryogenic core stage. ASAP 5
carries the complement of small-sats that are to be deployed during Flight
165: four Essaim spacecraft for the French defense procurement agency (DGA),
the Parasol payload from France’s CNES space agency and the Spanish Nanosat.
The Essaim spacecraft were developed for the French defense procurement
agency (DGA), and they will be used to validate technologies for a future
space-based military electronic intelligence (ELINT) system. They are
generally similar in overall size and appearance Parasol, a 120-kg.
small-sat that is to study the impact of aerosols and how they interact with
clouds to help scientists better understand the Earth’s climate.
Spain’s Nanosat is the smallest of the auxiliary payloads, weighing less
than 20 kg. It is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of applying
scaled-down components and sensors in mini satellites. The Nanosat payload
includes extremely small magnetic and solar sensors, along with a
store-and-forward communications system that will relay information from
remote scientific facilities to a central station in Madrid.
All of these auxiliary spacecraft will be released in sequence following
Ariane 5’s deployment of the mission’s primary satellite – the Helios IIA
military reconnaissance platform.
Liftoff of Flight 165 is planned for December 10 on a mission to
Sun-synchronous orbit.
