MetOp's Payload Module Container unloaded

The Payload Module Container, which houses MetOp's sensitive instruments, was unloaded first with impressive cranes and carried through the MIK 112 building, where it stayed until being moved to the UCIF, the Upper Composite Processing Facility.

MetOp-A was launched on 19 October 2006 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz ST rocket with a Fregat upper stage.