ESA Science & Technology - Launch Vehicle Adapter separated from BepiColombo Mercury Composite Spacecraft

The Mercury Composite Spacecraft (MCS) is suspended from an overhead crane in the Test Centre at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The clamp band that secured the Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) to the MCS has opened and the LVA has dropped onto the blocks of foam rubber. The open clamp band (white) can be seen at the top of the LVA (gold and grey truncated cones).

The clamp band was opened with compressed gas; this simulates the mechanical shock caused by the firing of a pyrotechnic device to open the clamp band during launch.