MTG-I2 reaches its final orbit

Just 12 days after launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on board an Ariane 6 rocket, the satellite has completed the first phase of its journey in space, known as launch and early orbit phase, or LEOP. It joins its two sister satellites in orbit, marking a major milestone for Europe’s next generation of weather satellites and completing the first family of MTG satellites.

Since MTG-I2 separated from its Ariane 6 launcher, the satellite has been carefully guided into its final geostationary orbit. It joins the first imager, MTG-I1, launched in 2022, and the first sounder, MTG-S1, launched in 2025.

The mission’s combined observations will significantly increase the quality, quantity and frequency of weather and environmental data available to European users, supporting improved weather forecasting, severe-weather nowcasting, numerical weather prediction and climate monitoring across Europe and North Africa.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “This is a key milestone for a mission of great importance for Europe – one that will make a real difference to how we are able to prepare for and respond to extreme weather events. I look forward to seeing the completed family of MTG satellites providing operational data that will improve resilience for communities. My thanks go to the teams that have worked hard on each phase of the mission, achieving this fantastic result.”

Developed through close collaboration between ESA and Eumetsat, with an international industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space in cooperation with OHB and Leonardo, the first MTG constellation is a major demonstration of European cooperation, expertise and ambition. The full constellation will be operated by Eumetsat throughout its lifetime.

Orbital manoeuvres

After liftoff, communication was established through the Malindi ground station in Kenya, the satellite’s propulsion system was started, and its solar arrays were deployed, ensuring that the satellite is able to generate its own power. ESA’s MTG Satellites Commissioning and Operations Manager, Alex Palacios, said, “Seeing the solar arrays deploy successfully was a truly great moment, when we knew the mission is safe, although it’s only the beginning of a tremendous amount of work. As expected for such a complex spacecraft, there were small deviations from predictions, but specialists supporting the LEOP campaign were able to explain them quickly and confirm that the satellite was behaving as expected.”

From its point of separation, MTG-I2 still had to increase its distance from Earth by more than 35 000 km in altitude – almost one tenth of the distance from Earth to the Moon. The LEOP team therefore carried out a series of orbital manoeuvres, including a series of burns of the satellite’s Liquid Apogee Engine (LAE). The final manoeuvres had to be exceptionally precise to position the satellite in its final geostationary orbit at 3.5°E longitude.

Carl Todd, ESA’s MTG System Software Engineer and leader of one of the three LEOP project support teams, noted “Everyone holds their breath, and when the first manoeuvre is completed successfully, it’s a great shared moment. But the final LAE firing is incredible from a technical point of view. After all the work that has gone into the previous manoeuvres, you have very precise control over where the satellite is going.”

Preparing for its mission

While the orbital manoeuvres were taking place, the spacecraft was progressively configured for its mission. This included deployment of the satellite’s antennas: a Ka-band transmission antenna and the antenna supporting the Data Collection System (DCS) and Geostationary Search and Rescue (GEOSAR) services.

The satellite was then pointed towards Earth. Although technically less demanding than the preceding orbital manoeuvres, this was a highly significant moment: it marked the final step of LEOP and prepared the spacecraft for its next phase.

Supporting LEOP

The LEOP is one of the most critical phases of satellite operations. MTG-I2’s LEOP was assisted by a team of 40 people based in the Telespazio Mission Control Centre in Fucino, with experts from Thales Alenia Space, OHB and ESA, supporting Telespazio and Eumetsat. Specialists in areas including flight dynamics, propulsion, attitude and orbit control, system and operations engineering and other disciplines worked in shifts, providing continuous support throughout the mission.

Emilia Barbagallo, ESA’s MTG Lead Operations Interface Engineer and leader of the MTG-I2 Project Support Team, explained that during this LEOP, many of the most critical operations took place at night. “Propulsion experts worked long and hard, preparing predictions before the LAE firings and analysing the results immediately afterwards. These highly sensitive analyses required exceptional concentration.”

What next for MTG?

On Tuesday, 8 September, MTG-I2 was formally handed over to Eumetsat to begin its commissioning phase. The commissioning team will now travel directly to Eumetsat’s control centre in Darmstadt, where they will activate and check the spacecraft and its instruments and prepare the satellite for operational service.

“No rest for the MTG team just yet,” said Alex Palacios. “We want to get commissioning started as soon as possible, so that MTG-I2 can begin generating data for European users and we can have this first MTG constellation fully operational.”