Telespazio control centre

Taking a significant step towards the launch of Europe’s first Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite, the operations teams at two different centres have completed an all-important suite of tests ensuring that their procedures are fully compatible with the satellite. These final tests, known as system validation tests, involved both Telespazio’s control centre in Fucino in Italy and Eumetsat’s mission operations facility in Darmstadt in Germany.

Telespazio is responsible for the satellite’s launch and early orbit phase, which covers the period from separation from the rocket to arrival at geostationary orbit. This phase takes around ten days and includes four burns of the satellite’s liquid apogee engine and deployment of the solar arrays and communications antennas.

Eumetsat is responsible for commissioning, routine operations in orbit and the provision of satellite data to national weather services and other users.

Read full story: Operation centres in tune for upcoming weather satellite