Launch vehicle adapter on the bottom of the BepiColombo spacecraft stack
Date: 10 August 2012
Satellite: BepiColombo
Depicts: Launch Vehicle Adapter
Location: European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), the Netherlands
Copyright: ESA
The Mercury Composite Spacecraft (MCS) will be connected to the upper stage of the Ariane 5 launcher by the Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA, gold and grey truncated cones in the image), which transfers the mechanical loads from the top of the launch vehicle upper stage to the launcher interface ring on the underside (-Z face) of the MCS.
Once the upper stage and its payload have arrived in the required orbit, the MCS will separate from the LVA. To achieve reliable separation, the MCS will be attached to the LVA using a clamp band (partially visible in the image, coloured white, top right of LVA). At separation, a pyrotechnic device will open the clamp band and springs will push the spacecraft away from the upper stage. The firing of the pyrotechnic device causes a mechanical shock to be transmitted to the spacecraft stack.
To simulate this shock, the MCS/LVA are suspended from an overhead crane in the Test Centre at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Compressed gas, rather than pyrotechnics, will be used to open the clamp band and the LVA will drop onto blocks of foam rubber. Accelerometers monitor the effect on the spacecraft stack.
