ESA Science & Technology - Ariane V124 leaves the way clear for XMM launch

Above: The slender Ariane 40 launcher on its pad, three hours before liftoff Right: V124 liftoff, the first of three in December.

For some of the members of the XMM team, it was the fourth opportunity to see a launch since their arrival in Kourou.  The daytime liftoff provided some unique views of the launcher in a clear blue sky. Tracking cameras were able to clearly follow the ascent and even show the separation of the second and third stages! The flight was the 50th consecutive success for the Ariane-4 launcher since March 1995. It was rightly celebrated in Jupiter Mission Control with a large cake with icing and chocolate mousse and 50 'rocket candles' and sparklers.

Ariane-4 launch activity that day restricted operations on XMM to a minimum for safety reasons. But the purge of the inside of the spacecraft (with nitrogen for the Optical Monitor and synthetic air for the telescope tube), and the battery charging equipment were checked, as every day, in the launch table.

Dornier's Reinhold Rebholtz checking the XMM purge equipment system in the Ariane 504 launch table. Note the suspended equipment bays, with reinforced springs to withstand the shocks at liftoff.

At the top of Ariane 504, the fairing is also permanently being flushed with a flow of fresh dry air (2000 cubic metre per hour at 16 °C) in order to maintain XMM at a constant 19 °C temperature.

	At the 2 December ESA party, XMM Project manager Robert Laini in conversation with Alcatel Bernard Deligny (left) and Guy Schang (right) from Alcatel Space, both involved in the Clementine micro-satellite also launched on Ariane V124.
	The 2 December ESA party to celebrate the XMM 'encapsulation' under the fairing.