ESA Science & Technology - Preparing the Gaia Payload Module for Thermal Balance and Thermal Vacuum testing

In preparation for Thermal Balance and Thermal Vacuum testing of the Gaia Flight Model Payload Module (PLM) at Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL), Belgium, the PLM (bipods, optical bench torus, mirrors, focal plane array) has been mated with a mechanical and thermal representation of the interface with the Service Module in the base of the vacuum chamber.

Now that the lifting equipment has been removed, the clean tent that surrounds the preparation area has been closed. With this protection against contamination of the optical components in place, the individual covers on the mirrors and focal plane array have been removed.