One last team photo before launch. Today, at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre, in Darmstadt, Germany, the Biomass team gathered for the pre-launch briefing.
ESA’s forest satellite, to be flown from ESOC, is scheduled for launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, in French Guiana, on 29 April.
Biomass is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions and, like other Earth Explorers, it uses advanced space technology to provide new data. Biomass will advance our understanding of forests and their importance in the carbon cycle and climate.
Over the winter, a large team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) has been preparing and rehearsing for the satellite’s first and most critical moments in space – the ‘Launch and Early Orbit’ phase.
Counting to bit over a hundred people, this ‘team of teams’ gathers engineers and scientists – working in the ground segment, flight dynamics, software and networks – as well as experts from the satellite’s manufacturer and instrument teams.
Shaping this team into a single cohesive unit is the goal of this ‘simulation campaign’.
As part of it, the team is faced with many events, from software errors to critical failures, specifically designed to test its capabilities to identify issues, adapt the mission’s timeline and, more generally, work under stress and time pressure.
Preparations, rehearsals, briefings, and team photos now complete, mission control is GO for launch!
Follow @esa and @esaoperations on BlueSky for live updates on launch day.