Journal archive

Journal archive

#12: BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Proto-Flight Mechanical and Propulsion Bus undergoes bake-out
5 February 2013The BepiColombo MPO has been baked out in the Phenix thermal vacuum facility at ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
#11: BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Proto-Flight Mechanical and Propulsion Bus Arrives at ESTEC
18 January 2013The BepiColombo MPO Mechanical and Propulsion Bus Proto-Flight Model has arrived at ESTEC for its bake-out operation.
#10: BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement
17 December 2012The mass properties of the BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Structural and Thermal Model have been measured at the ESTEC test facilities.
#07: Gaia launcher separation test and Payload Module acceptance vibration tests completed
29 October 2012Testing of the separation of the Gaia Service Module from its Launch Vehicle Adapter has been completed, as have the acceptance vibration tests on the Payload Module.
#06: Gaia Payload Module integration completed
17 September 2012Integration of the Flight Model of the Gaia Payload Module has been completed. It has undergone acceptance vibration testing; thermal balance and thermal vacuum testing will be carried out towards the end of this year.
#05: Gaia Service Module Thermal Balance/Thermal Vacuum testing completed
10 September 2012The Protoflight Model of the Gaia Service Module has successfully completed thermal balance and thermal vacuum testing in the SIMLES chamber at Intespace Toulouse.
#09: BepiColombo Composite Spacecraft Separation Shock Testing
27 August 2012The BepiColombo Mercury Composite Spacecraft Structural and Thermal Model has undergone testing to demonstrate the spacecraft can withstand the shocks induced at two key events during the launch phase.
#08: BepiColombo Composite Spacecraft Vibration Testing
17 August 2012The BepiColombo Structural and Thermal Model test campaign has passed another milestone with the completion of sine vibration testing at qualification level along all three spacecraft axes.
#07: BepiColombo Composite Spacecraft Mass Properties Measurements
10 July 2012The mass properties of the BepiColombo Mercury Composite Spacecraft have been measured. This is the first time that the spacecraft structural and thermal model has been fully integrated.
#04: Gaia Phased Array Antenna delivered and integrated
6 July 2012The phased array antenna that Gaia will use to send its science data to Earth has been delivered and integrated onto the Service Module.
#06: BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Mass Properties Measurements
20 June 2012The mass properties of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter have been measured using specialist equipment in ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC).
#05: BepiColombo Planetary Orbiter and Transfer Module mated for first time
27 April 2012The Structural and Thermal Models of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mercury Transfer Module were mated for the first time on 11 April 2012. The mating was performed to accurately position the inter-module hardware on the transfer module.
#03: Gaia Basic Angle Monitor delivered for integration
11 April 2012The protoflight models of Gaia's two Basic Angle Monitor (BAM) Opto-Mechanical Assembly (OMA) bars have been delivered to the spacecraft Prime Contractor and are being prepared for integration into the Gaia Payload Module.
#04: Structural model of the BepiColombo Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter at ESTEC
7 December 2011The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter SM arrived at ESTEC last month, having been flown from Japan. In the coming weeks, the four components of the Mercury Composite Spacecraft will be prepared for the next test campaign.
#02: Gaia sunshield deployment test
2 December 2011Deployment testing of the Gaia Flight Model Deployable Sunshield Assembly has been successfully completed in preparation for the spacecraft mechanical test campaign.
#03: Mercury Planetary Orbiter takes a simulated trip to the innermost planet
12 October 2011Thermal-balance testing of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Structural and Thermal Model, which has been under way in ESA's Large Space Simulator since 20 September, has been successfully completed.
#02: Mercury Planetary Orbiter wraps up for hot work
5 September 2011The installation of high-temperature thermal blankets on the Structural and Thermal Model of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter has been completed.
#01: Structural and Thermal Model of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter arrives at ESTEC
5 August 2011This is the first entry in the BepiColombo Test Campaign Journal, a series of articles covering the main events during the integration and testing of the Structural and Thermal Models (STM) and the Proto-Flight Models (PFM) of the four major components that make up the BepiColombo composite spacecraft stack.
Final view of Herschel at Kourou
12 May 2009On Sunday 10 May the Ariane 5 ECA fairing was lowered over the Herschel spacecraft and the SYLDA, under which the Planck spacecraft sits, to be integrated finally with the launcher. Both spacecraft are now ready for the launch on 14 May at 13:12 UTC.
19-Mar-2024 07:13 UT

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