Last Friday the so called “combined operations” started with the mating of Sentinel-3C satellite on the VESPA+R adaptor upper part (VUP).
The satellite was carrefully released from its stand and lifted:
It was then transferred to the VESPA+R upper part:
It was then mated on the adaptor and the clamp band was tensioned:
On Monday, the assembly Sentinel-3C+VUP was transferred to the VESPA+R lower part (VLP) where FLEX satellite had been previously installed:
We can also see the 2 fairing halves around:
The VUP was very carefully lowered and placed on the VLP:
The VESPA+R is now fully closed:
The next step has been the final preparation of the S3C satellite before encapsulation in the fairing, in particular to remove the last non-flight items protecting the satellite sensitive instruments.
Finally, the full stack has been encapsulated in the fairing! More pictures to come as soon as available!
A new article about Sentinel-3 has been published on the ESA website:
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