Mission control ready for EarthCARE despite disruption

The core of any launch preparations at ESA is the ‘simulations campaign’. By rehearsing the time-critical operations that take place on and around launch day, the campaign trains the spacecraft’s flight control team together with support teams from flight dynamics, ground systems and software support as well as teams from the satellite’s manufacturer and instrument teams into a single cohesive unit.

Experienced Simulations Officers monitor the actions of the combined Mission Control Team and inject faults into the ground segment that force the team to react in real time: What should they do if a member of the control team suddenly falls ill? What if communication with the spacecraft is interrupted at a crucial moment? How should they react to an alert from ESA’s Space Debris Office warning of a possible collision in orbit?

“Our Simulations Officers are very good at finding potential weak points,” says EarthCARE Flight Operations Director, José Morales. “This team is excellent, but young, for example. So, they were forced to handle an issue while their experienced team leader was kept out of the action. What they face during the simulation campaign will likely be far worse than anything they encounter on launch day. But in spacecraft operations, we hope for the best and plan for the worst.”

Effective communication is essential on launch day. The ESA teams must work seamlessly with those from partners such as the Japanese space agency, JAXA, who developed EarthCARE’s Cloud Profiling Radar.

To this end, a delegation of JAXA engineers and team leaders joined their ESA colleagues in the Mission Control Team for the simulations campaign and will support the operations of their instrument in real time during the Launch and Early Orbit Phase. As part of the simulation campaign, the teams rehearsed the problem-solving steps that they would go through if something were to go wrong during the deployment of the radar’s 2.5-metre reflector dish.

However, there was one disruption that even our Simulation Officers had not planned for. While carrying out nearby engineering works, civil authorities in the city of Darmstadt uncovered an object that they feared could be an old, unexploded bomb. If that were the case, the surrounding area would need to be evacuated, including ESA mission control. The day’s EarthCARE simulations were cancelled while the object was investigated.

“It is not unusual to challenge the team to evacuate the control centre during a simulation,” says Isabel Rojo, EarthCARE Spacecraft Operations Manager. “But that is very different from having to replan our preparations schedule just a few weeks before a launch. The timing was unfortunate, increasing the pressure on an already tight schedule, but dealing with unexpected challenges is part of what we do here.”

Fortunately, the object was not a bomb, and the EarthCARE team was able to return to mission control the next day. They have now entered the most demanding phase of their launch preparations as the Simulation Officers raise the stakes to the point of almost losing the spacecraft. After this climactic scenario, the simulations will return to more mild anomalies before the team carries out a trouble-free dress rehearsal on 17 May.

By that time, they will be fully prepared to guide EarthCARE through its first days in orbit and onwards as it begins its mission to improve our understanding of the role that clouds and aerosols play in Earth’s changing climate.

Follow @esaoperations and @esa_eo on X and esa_earth on Instagram for EarthCARE updates on and around launch day.

Experience the tension at ESA mission control in our short film: “The Burn”