MTG-I1 Meteosat Third Generation Satellite Fully Loaded

Europe’s first Meteosat Third Generation Imager (MTG-I1) satellite has been fueled – a critical and extremely hazardous milestone on the road to its planned December 13 launch. Once in geostationary orbit 36,000 km (≈22,300 miles) above the equator, this all-new weather satellite will provide state-of-the art observations of Earth’s atmosphere and real time monitoring of lightning events, taking weather forecasting to the next level.

"Everything went smoothly, and all the teams here are very happy that we’ve passed this significant milestone in the launch campaign." ESA launch campaign manager James Champion.

ESA launch campaign manager James Champion.

MTG-I1 has been at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana since mid-October being readied for liftoff. Over these last weeks, the satellite’s functionality has been checked out for the last time on Earth, and all the ‘deployables’, namely the solar array, the Ka-band antenna and the Data Collection Service and Geostationary Search and Rescue instrument antennas finally locked ‘and loaded’ for launch.

Having confirmed the satellite is ‘good to go’, the next step was to load the two metric tons of highly volatile fuel into the central tanks of the satellite that will power it to its final geostationary orbit and allow for 15 years of operational orbit maintenance. This is an extremely delicate and potentially dangerous phase, with the highly toxic hydrazine and oxidizer being transferred from transport drums into the satellite.

To do this, MTG-I1 was moved to the S5B Hazardous Processing Facility, which has all the necessary detection and decontamination systems needed during this delicate process. As can be seen from the photographs, the fueling team is suitably attired in their ‘scape suits’ so that they are completely protected should any unexpected leak occur.

"Everything went smoothly, and all the teams here are very happy that we’ve passed this significant milestone in the launch campaign," said ESA launch campaign manager James Champion. "Well done to the fuelling team from Thales Alenia Space in France who carried out this delicate operation without a hitch.”

The next step for the fueled satellite, which now weighs almost 3.8 metric tons, is to mount it onto the launch adapter. This is the first part of the ‘combined operations’ phase with Arianespace where the satellite is assembled carefully into the upper composite of the Ariane 5 rocket. This step also involves the co-passengers, the Galaxy 35 and 36 telecommunication satellites, which occupy the upper position in the launcher fairing.

MTG-I1 will be Launched aboard an Ariane 5 Rocket

On December 13, MTG-I1 will finally take to the skies on an Ariane 5 rocket. This date has actually been advanced by one day owing to a delay in the preceding Vega-C launch, which will now take place after MTG-I1.

MTG-I1 is the first of six satellites that form the full MTG system, which will provide critical data for weather forecasting over the next 20 years. In full operations, the mission will comprise two MTG-I satellites and one MTG Sounding (MTG-S) satellites working in tandem.

The MTG-I satellites carry two completely new instruments, a Flexible Combined Imager and Europe’s first Lightning Imager, to deliver high-quality data for better weather forecasting. The Flexible Combined Imager has more spectral channels and is capable of imaging in higher resolution compared to current Meteosat Second Generation’s Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared instrument. The Lightning Imager offers a completely new capability for European meteorological satellites. It will continuously monitor more than 80% of the Earth disc for lightning discharges, taking place either between clouds or between clouds and the ground.

The MTG-I satellites also carry two smaller payloads for data collection from remote science beacons and for search and rescue by detecting emergency beacons.

These all-new instruments will allow severe storms to be detected in their early stages and will therefore be key for issuing timely warnings.

(Images provided with ESA news release)