Herschel Upcoming Integrated System Test
18 January 2008
After arriving at ESTEC on 5 January and having passed its post shipment test, the Herschel Flight Model spacecraft was transferred from its Multi Purpose Trolley onto the Vertical Support Stand (VSS).
The next main events for the Herschel spacecraft are the bake out and in parallel the IST- Integrated System Test. The bake out of the cryostat vacuum vessel is performed to remove excess water molecules from the system, improving the performance of the multi-layer insulation between the three internal thermal shields. The IST is the functional test of the entire satellite that is performed to verify the hardware and the software of each single part as an integrated part of the satellite.
Last Update: 1 September 2019