Satellite fuelling
Last week the Sentinel-3C satellite has been successfully fuelled! The satellite ready for fuelling: The propellant handlers are checking the hydrazine drum: The hydrazine drum is hung from a weight cell to accurately measure the propellant mass transferred to the satellite tank: After filling the tank, it was pressurized to about 21 bars. In total…
Satellite transfer to hazardous facility
This week the satellite has been transferred from the S5C satellite preparation cleanroom to the S5B hazardous processing facility (HPF): On its way, the satellite passed via the S5B airlock where the Vega-C fairing halves and the VESPA+R (dual launch adapter) were stored: The Sentinel-3C logo printed on the fairing: The VESPA+R upper part on…
Completion of satellite standalone tests
This week the satellite standalone tests have been completed! It means that all satellite subystems have been successfully checked. The latest tests were the optical payload tests (OLCI and SLSTR instruments). Then the satellite mechanical and thermal finalization has been performed. The following picture shows the satellite in its current configuration, with also the satellite…