![](\"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Cheops_launch_preparations_card_full.jpg\")
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This timelapse video shows the preparations for the launch of ESA\u2019s Cheops, the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, at Europe\u2019s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The video spans about three weeks, starting on 28 November 2019 and ending on 18 December with the liftoff.<\/p>\n
Over this period, the fully integrated and fuelled spacecraft was fitted inside the flight adapter of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket, encapsulated within the half-shells of the transport module, transferred to the final integration building, and installed on top of the Fregat upper stage of the Soyuz launcher. The upper composite, enveloped by the rocket fairing and comprises the Fregat and all passengers \u2013 the ASI Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite, Cheops, and three CubeSats: ESA\u2019s OPS-SAT and CNES’s EYE-SAT and ANGELS satellites \u2013 was eventually transferred to the launch pad area and hoisted on top of the three-stage rocket ahead of liftoff.<\/p>\n
Cheops is ESA\u2019s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet\u2019s transit across the star\u2019s disc.<\/p>\n